Bad new at GTU

[Ronnie]

We had a crash at GTU, Georgetown, TX yesterday. A Cessna 182
with 4 men on board crashed on takeoff off runway 11. The aircraft
crashed just outside the airport boundary into a field with small oak,
scrub and grass. It burned on impact. You certainly can't put much
stock in the new reports, but the local news outlets reported witnesses
hearing a "sputting" engine as the airplane went down. They also reported
that the pilot and one other man died and the two others were burned
and transported to burn centers. They were headed to Colorado for
a ski trip. The aircraft was Mexican registration based based at GTU
and hangared in the same hangar where I kept my Aztec.

I had just landed with a student and pulled up to the gas pumps to refuel.
The C182 was sitting in front of the terminal building with a group of
people,
apparently wives and children, saying goodbye and waiting for it to depart.
It taxied out about the same time we finished refueling. We taxied back to
our
hangar and when I got out of the airplane I noticed a big cloud of very
black smoke rising from the south end of the field. I told my student that
didn't
look good, and in very short order, sirens were heard. I grapped the
handheld radio
to listen to CTAF and in a couple of minutes the UNICOM operator broadcasted
and advisory to aircraft in bound to GTU that an aircraft had crashed just
off the
departure end of runway 11.

In any event, it was a sobering event to realize that I had watched the last
few minutes of these guys's life as they prepared to depart, not knowing
that they only had a few minutes to live. Worse yet, was knowing that
family member witnessed the accident.

Ronnie

[John Doe]

"Ronnie" > wrote in message
. com...
> We had a crash at GTU, Georgetown, TX yesterday. A Cessna 182
> with 4 men on board crashed on takeoff off runway 11. The aircraft
> crashed just outside the airport boundary into a field with small oak,
> scrub and grass. It burned on impact. You certainly can't put much
> stock in the new reports, but the local news outlets reported witnesses
> hearing a "sputting" engine as the airplane went down. They also reported
> that the pilot and one other man died and the two others were burned
> and transported to burn centers. They were headed to Colorado for
> a ski trip. The aircraft was Mexican registration based based at GTU
> and hangared in the same hangar where I kept my Aztec.

4 men and bags plus gas to get from Texas to Colorado in a 182. Wow that
smells like max gross weight to me. I'm sorry to hear of yet another
possibly preventable accident in GA.

I have lost close friends in aviation accidents before and my thoughts do go
out to their family and friends. Not a good time.

[Dave Stadt]

"John Doe" > wrote in message
news:X72Pf.47550$Dh.20557@dukeread04...
>
> "Ronnie" > wrote in message
> . com...
>> We had a crash at GTU, Georgetown, TX yesterday. A Cessna 182
>> with 4 men on board crashed on takeoff off runway 11. The aircraft
>> crashed just outside the airport boundary into a field with small oak,
>> scrub and grass. It burned on impact. You certainly can't put much
>> stock in the new reports, but the local news outlets reported witnesses
>> hearing a "sputting" engine as the airplane went down. They also
>> reported
>> that the pilot and one other man died and the two others were burned
>> and transported to burn centers. They were headed to Colorado for
>> a ski trip. The aircraft was Mexican registration based based at GTU
>> and hangared in the same hangar where I kept my Aztec.
>
> 4 men and bags plus gas to get from Texas to Colorado in a 182. Wow that
> smells like max gross weight to me. I'm sorry to hear of yet another
> possibly preventable accident in GA.
>
> I have lost close friends in aviation accidents before and my thoughts do
> go out to their family and friends. Not a good time.


Over gross causes an engine to quit? That's a new one to me.

[Montblack]

("Dave Stadt" wrote)
> Over gross causes an engine to quit? That's a new one to me.


Engine quit = fatal crash ...is always sad.


Montblack

[Peter R.]

Montblack > wrote:

> ("Dave Stadt" wrote)
>> Over gross causes an engine to quit? That's a new one to me.
>
> Engine quit = fatal crash ...is always sad.

Assuming the eyewitness accounts (or ear-witness accounts, as the case may
be) in this accident's case are accurate, of course.

--
Peter

[Dylan Smith]

On 2006-03-06, Dave Stadt > wrote:
> Over gross causes an engine to quit? That's a new one to me.

No, but the fatality of the result could be related to being over gross.
An under gross aircraft may have been at an altitude that a survivable
landing spot might have been made. An under gross plane might not have
stalled at a speed higher than expected. However, I think the NTSB will
shed more light on this than random chat on Usenet from a bunch of
people who didn't even witness the event! (Even the witnesses may be
wrong - eyewitness accounts are notoriously inaccurate and the engine
may have been producing power at the point of impact - we won't know
without looking at the report).

--
Dylan Smith, Port St Mary, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net

[Ronnie]

The NTSB posted a preliminary report a couple of days ago.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060307X00274&key=1

Ronnie

"Ronnie" > wrote in message
. com...
> We had a crash at GTU, Georgetown, TX yesterday. A Cessna 182
> with 4 men on board crashed on takeoff off runway 11. The aircraft
> crashed just outside the airport boundary into a field with small oak,
> scrub and grass. It burned on impact. You certainly can't put much
> stock in the new reports, but the local news outlets reported witnesses
> hearing a "sputting" engine as the airplane went down. They also reported
> that the pilot and one other man died and the two others were burned
> and transported to burn centers. They were headed to Colorado for
> a ski trip. The aircraft was Mexican registration based based at GTU
> and hangared in the same hangar where I kept my Aztec.
>
> I had just landed with a student and pulled up to the gas pumps to refuel.
> The C182 was sitting in front of the terminal building with a group of
> people,
> apparently wives and children, saying goodbye and waiting for it to
> depart.
> It taxied out about the same time we finished refueling. We taxied back
> to our
> hangar and when I got out of the airplane I noticed a big cloud of very
> black smoke rising from the south end of the field. I told my student
> that didn't
> look good, and in very short order, sirens were heard. I grapped the
> handheld radio
> to listen to CTAF and in a couple of minutes the UNICOM operator
> broadcasted
> and advisory to aircraft in bound to GTU that an aircraft had crashed just
> off the
> departure end of runway 11.
>
> In any event, it was a sobering event to realize that I had watched the
> last
> few minutes of these guys's life as they prepared to depart, not knowing
> that they only had a few minutes to live. Worse yet, was knowing that
> family member witnessed the accident.
>
> Ronnie
>
>
>