Losing an old friend

[cjcampbell]

Some of you may remember my first airplane, N9636B. It was a 172RG and
I had many hours in it. I frequently talked here about my experiences
with it.

I was curious as to what it was doing now and did a search on the
plane. To my shock, I learned that it crashed near Catalina Island on
September 5, killing two ATP rated pilots, one of them an FAA Aviation
Safety Inspector flying his EBC requirements and the other an examiner.
Very experienced guys, I would guess.

The accident report is here:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20050909X01430&key=1

N9636B was a good airplane, except for the perennial problems I had
with the gear until I replaced the hydraulic pack. After that it flew
flawlessly. I understand that the people who bought it from me had used
it as a trainer and that it had suffered a gear up landing that
required a complete engine teardown and overhaul.

Well, now I suppose I will always wonder what happened to the plane. :-(

[Dudley Henriques]

"cjcampbell" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Some of you may remember my first airplane, N9636B. It was a 172RG and
> I had many hours in it. I frequently talked here about my experiences
> with it.
>
> I was curious as to what it was doing now and did a search on the
> plane. To my shock, I learned that it crashed near Catalina Island on
> September 5, killing two ATP rated pilots, one of them an FAA Aviation
> Safety Inspector flying his EBC requirements and the other an examiner.
> Very experienced guys, I would guess.
>
> The accident report is here:
> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20050909X01430&key=1
>
> N9636B was a good airplane, except for the perennial problems I had
> with the gear until I replaced the hydraulic pack. After that it flew
> flawlessly. I understand that the people who bought it from me had used
> it as a trainer and that it had suffered a gear up landing that
> required a complete engine teardown and overhaul.
>
> Well, now I suppose I will always wonder what happened to the plane. :-(

Had a similar experience.
The last airplane I flew in for test purposes in the flight test community
was an F14A at Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Patuxant River Naval Air
Station. It was the #619 engine test bed aircraft being used for flight
testing the TF30 engines.
Several weeks after I had left Pax, I got the word this aircraft was lost
while being flown by a friend of mine experimenting with flat spin modes.
Both DD Smith and his RO got out all right, but the spin was so bad, the
front cockpit was way out in front of the spin axis and DD was -7g's. He
couldn't reach the curtain and just barely got a grip on the seat handle in
front of the seat. Pete Angelina in the back was luckier. He was much closer
to the spin axis and had an easier ejection.
The bird went into the Chesapeake Bay and was a total loss of course.
I has a special affinity for that old bird. Even today I can recall where
the paint was chipped on the panel.
Such is life. Some days you eat the bear. Some days the bear eats you.
Dudley

[JJS]

"cjcampbell" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Some of you may remember my first airplane, N9636B. It was a 172RG and
> I had many hours in it. I frequently talked here about my experiences
> with it.
>
> I was curious as to what it was doing now and did a search on the
> plane. To my shock, I learned that it crashed near Catalina Island on
> September 5, killing two

snip

My condolences C.J. I would be traumatized if that happened to me.

Joe Schneider
N8437R



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[cjcampbell]

cjcampbell wrote:
> Some of you may remember my first airplane, N9636B. It was a 172RG and
> I had many hours in it. I frequently talked here about my experiences
> with it.
>
> I was curious as to what it was doing now and did a search on the
> plane. To my shock, I learned that it crashed near Catalina Island on
> September 5, killing two ATP rated pilots, one of them an FAA Aviation
> Safety Inspector flying his EBC requirements and the other an examiner.
> Very experienced guys, I would guess.
>
> The accident report is here:
> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20050909X01430&key=1
>
> N9636B was a good airplane, except for the perennial problems I had
> with the gear until I replaced the hydraulic pack. After that it flew
> flawlessly. I understand that the people who bought it from me had used
> it as a trainer and that it had suffered a gear up landing that
> required a complete engine teardown and overhaul.
>
> Well, now I suppose I will always wonder what happened to the plane. :-(

The two people who were killed were Doug Ledet, former Green Beret,
founder of Circle Air Aviation in Hawaii, and FAA safety inspector; and
Masahiro "Masa" Mitsutomi, the owner of M.I. Air and DPE, who was
the guy who bought the plane from me. According to FAA spokesmen in the
news reports about it M.I. Air had an excellent reputation and was the
kind of place where FAA inspectors preferred to go for their training.

The water is 250-300 feet deep there, but no trace of the plane or
Mitsutomi's body was ever found. Apparently there are a lot of
strong, shifting currents in the area.

News reports refer to it as a "mystery plane crash," because it is
completely unexplainable. Mitsutomi's wife, herself a pilot, said he
was the kind of guy who could fly a Volkswagen. She believes that
something catastrophic must have happened to the plane, such as hitting
a flock of birds or total airframe failure.

I do know that the plane had a gear-up landing sometime after I sold it
and that the engine had to be torn down and overhauled, but apparently
M.I. Air had a reputation for extremely well-maintained aircraft.

[Flyingmonk]

Interesting DJ,

CJ wrote:
>The water is 250-300 feet deep there, but no trace of the plane or
>Mitsutomi's body was ever found.

I believe the fisher aulled Mitsutomi's body abourd, it was Doug Ledet
that was missing and presumed to have sustained fatal injuries.

Was there a May Day call? In the report it stated that the weather was
VFR and no flight plan was filed"Visual meteorological conditions
prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed"), but in the following
paragraph, it saids that "According to the operator, the pilots filed
an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan to Catalina due to weather
considerations"

The report also saids "The proposed itinerary was to fly from Redlands
Airport (L12), where he rented the airplane, to Avalon Airport, and
then return to Redlands.", but you said Misutomi bought the plane from
you. Why would he need to rent it if he owned it?

I'm confused...

Shame about your plane and the pilots.

Monk

[cjcampbell]

Flyingmonk wrote:
> Interesting DJ,
>
> CJ wrote:
> >The water is 250-300 feet deep there, but no trace of the plane or
> >Mitsutomi's body was ever found.
>
> I believe the fisher aulled Mitsutomi's body abourd, it was Doug Ledet
> that was missing and presumed to have sustained fatal injuries.
>

The news report I read said it was Ledet that the fisher recovered.

> Was there a May Day call? In the report it stated that the weather was
> VFR and no flight plan was filed"Visual meteorological conditions
> prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed"), but in the following
> paragraph, it saids that "According to the operator, the pilots filed
> an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan to Catalina due to weather
> considerations"

That would be typical for that area. The cloud cover may have burned
off while they were at Catalina and so they cancelled the return flight
plan. Also, being IFR while coming back might have made it inconvenient
to practice aerial maneuvers along the way. The report does not mention
any weather conditions for the return flight.

>
> The report also saids "The proposed itinerary was to fly from Redlands
> Airport (L12), where he rented the airplane, to Avalon Airport, and
> then return to Redlands.", but you said Misutomi bought the plane from
> you. Why would he need to rent it if he owned it?
>

Ledet was the FAA Inspector and was renting the plane from Mitsutomi.
Mitsutomi was acting as the safety pilot.

> I'm confused...
>
> Shame about your plane and the pilots.

I really have trouble imagining the circumstances under which an
accident like this might have occurred. This airplane was very stable
and it was well equipped with a GNS 430 Nav/Comm. The engine was
overhauled after one of M.I.'s students landed it gear up and it should
have been in great shape. An engine failure would not have caused a
steep dive like that anyway, and a control failure would not have
allowed them to lift the nose before impact. It seems unlikely that
these two would have become disoriented. So I don't get it at all.

[Flyingmonk]

>Ledet was the FAA Inspector and was renting the plane from Mitsutomi.
>Mitsutomi was acting as the safety pilot.

That explains alot. I read the report as Ledet was the DPE (designated
examiner).

>An engine failure would not have caused a
>steep dive like that anyway, and a control failure would not have
>allowed them to lift the nose before impact.

Most likely scenario, control failure...

[Don Tuite]

On 22 May 2006 20:42:15 -0700, "cjcampbell"
> wrote:

>So I don't get it at all.

Nor is the location a clue. (That's GPS data from the fisherman who
recovered the body, right?)

If you were going straight back to Redlands, you would go that far
north, in order to pick up a vector that would get you past SNA
without havng to talk to the tower. And you'd stay over the island
(no doubt climibing all the way) as long as you could, just to
minimize the possibility of ditching at sea.

And perhaps all that is a clue. To end up in the sea just barely
offshore after staying over land well past the isthmus, almost to the
tip of the island, is strange indeed. It argues for something sudden
and utterly irreversable.

Bird strike?

(OTOH, I would not put too much reliance on any eye-witness's
impressions of pitch angle.)

Don