A Pilot Gives Thanks

[A Guy Called Tyketto]

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With regarding to accidents, since everyone is always concerned
with the accident and the more foreboding/morbid things relating to it,
not many people (including some in this newsgroup) look at the bright
side of things, let alone express their thanks and gratitude for the
assistance ATC provides. The following does exactly that, as well as
has a pilot thanking ATC for getting him down safely in an emergency.
It's a good, but short read; I'll follow up with the transcript shortly
(audio is available, but edited; the actual incident occurred too far
back to be in the LiveATC archives).

Enjoy.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7117497

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! :) | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

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[A Guy Called Tyketto]

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And here's that transcript.

Third Annual Archie League Medal of Safety:
Great Lakes Region Audio Transcript

Champaign, Ill. ATCT (CMI) Archie League Award Winner
Audio Transcript

Controllers: David Murphy and Yasemin Parker

Pilot: Willard Nickisch (N8048Q)

September 13, 2006

Time: 5.45


WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won.t release and
it wants to pull me down into a dive.

NICKISCH: I don't know if I can find the approach. It is taking all of
my muscles to just hold back on this thing.. OK, let's go for you ..
You're going to have to radar vector me and give me some frequencies..
OK, uh, one-eight-zero and I'm above the deck so I'd like to stay up as
long as I can, but .. uh .. uh .. uh .. OK .. yeah, 1-8-0.

MURPHY: November 8048Quebec, this is Champaign Approach. How do you
hear me, sir?

NICKISCH: I hear you sir.

MURPHY: November 48Quebec, I'm going to vector you to an approach to
Runway 32 Right. Are you capable of flying an NDB or a GPS approach,
sir?

NICKISCH: If I didn't have to fight the autopilot I would, but no I
can't at this time. I want to try the ILS.

MURPHY: 48Quebec. What I'm going to do is I'm going to provide a radar
surveillance approach for you to Runway 32 Right. I'll provide all the
vectors and I'll give you recommended altitudes on final. All you'll
have to do is fly the airplane. Do you have any difficulty other than
the autopilot?

NICKISCH: No, but it's a handful.

MURPHY: Yes, sir, I'm aware of that. I just want to make sure what else
to maybe be prepared for. Just stay at your present altitude or
whatever altitude you need to stay a VMC until we get you set up on
final. I won't bring you down into the clouds until we have you lined
up with the runway. I'll take you out to about 10 miles, make a 12-mile
final.

NICKISCH: OK, make it as short as you can.

MURPHY: OK, I can make it shorter but I'm going to have to have you
start descending. You're right now only five miles from the airport.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec start a descent. When you're ready, maintain
two thousand four hundred. Two thousand four hundred. When I see you
start descending, I'm going to turn you toward the airport.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec, are you able to start your descent, sir?

NICKISCH: I thought I was going down. It's taking everything I can to
hold back on the yoke. They tell me if I release the pressure, the
thing might let go. But boy it puts me in a straight dive down,
straight down.

MURPHY: We're in no hurry, I have no other traffic so you tell me
whatever it is you need to do.

NICKISCH: The big question is how long can I hold her. I'm going to try
releasing it and going down but let's see if I can pull her out.

NICKISCH: Yeah, she wouldn't let go. OK .. uh .. what do you want me to
do?

MURPHY: Well, November 48Quebec, I want to vector you toward the
airport but if you don't think you can control the descent, stand by
I'm trying to get some other assistance.

NICKISCH: I'm controlling the descent. I tried to let go of the yoke so
the autopilot would let go but it wouldn't, so .. uh .. continue with the
approach, please.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec, roger. Continue in the gradual right turn.
You are nine miles from the runway and this will be a vector to Runway
32 Right. The wind is 3-2-0 at 1-0.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec, are you the only person on board?

NICKISCH: Roger.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec you can start descent now to the minimum
descent altitude. That is 1-1-0-0 descend at your discretion. You are
five and one-half miles from the runway and I show you on course.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec, report the airport in sight when you have
it. You are now five miles from the runway.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec, you are cleared to land on Runway 32 Right.
Let me know when you see the airport.

NICKISCH: I have the airport.

MURPHY: November 8048 Quebec you are number one. Cleared to land Runway
32 Right. Remain on my frequency for now.

NICKISCH: I'm going to try dropping the gear. You got the trucks ready?

MURPHY TO LOCAL CONTROL IN TOWER: Local, verify the trucks have been
rolled. He's going to try and lower the gear and he doesn't know what
that's going to do.

MURPHY: Local East, what do you got?

LOCAL EAST: Local, he's on the ground. Safe.

MURPHY: November 48 Quebec, contact Champaign Tower on 1-2-0 point
four. Nice job, sir.

NICKISCH: Where may I park?

MURPHY: November 48Quebec, you can just stop wherever you need to sir.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! :) | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

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[Larry Dighera]

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:23:27 GMT, A Guy Called Tyketto
> wrote in
>:

>WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won.t release and
>it wants to pull me down into a dive.

Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
breaker. Strange no one thought of that.

[Mxsmanic]

Larry Dighera writes:

> Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
> breaker. Strange no one thought of that.

He did admit in his letter that he was unfamiliar with the incident
and the recovery procedure (although I suppose that's no excuse).

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

[JGalban[_13_]]

Richard Riley wrote:

>Maybe he couldn't get to it while hauling back on the yolk?

Master off. Pull breaker. Master on.

John Galban=====>N4BQ (PA28-180)


--
JGalban
Posted at www.flight.org

[Gig 601XL Builder]

Larry Dighera wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:23:27 GMT, A Guy Called Tyketto
> > wrote in
> >:
>
>> WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won.t release and
>> it wants to pull me down into a dive.
>
> Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
> breaker. Strange no one thought of that.

I thought the same thing when I was listening to the tape on NPR this
morning.

[Jim Logajan]

Larry Dighera > wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:23:27 GMT, A Guy Called Tyketto
> > wrote in
> >:
>
>>WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won.t release and
>>it wants to pull me down into a dive.
>
> Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
> breaker. Strange no one thought of that.

I got the impression from this statement in his "thank you" letter that he
did pull the circuit breakers:

"Being I had disconnected the circuit breakers thinking it was an autopilot
problem I did not have a working gyro compass."

A Google search turns up a CNN interview where he indicates or suggests the
problem turned out to be a stuck elevator trim.

[Paul kgyy]

On Feb 2, 4:03 pm, Larry Dighera > wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:23:27 GMT, A Guy Called Tyketto
> > wrote in
> >:
>
> >WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won.t release and
> >it wants to pull me down into a dive.
>
> Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
> breaker. Strange no one thought of that.

On the older PA28s, you can't pull the breakers (e.g. 1969). They are
recessed. Having read this, I'm wondering about carrying something
with a blade sharp enough to slip under the cap to pry it out.

[gatt]

"Paul kgyy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> On the older PA28s, you can't pull the breakers (e.g. 1969). They are
> recessed.

Ah, that's right! In the 28R I fly the only breaker that can easily be
pulled is for the landing gear. I wonder if he could have/did just shut
down the master. Wouldn't have helped if the elevator was stuck, of course.

Excellent reading.

-c

[Matt Barrow]

"Gig 601XL Builder" <wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net> wrote in message
...
> Larry Dighera wrote:
>> On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:23:27 GMT, A Guy Called Tyketto
>> > wrote in
>> >:
>>
>>> WILLARD NICKISCH, PILOT: I've got an autopilot that won.t release and
>>> it wants to pull me down into a dive.
>>
>> Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
>> breaker. Strange no one thought of that.
>
> I thought the same thing when I was listening to the tape on NPR this
> morning.
Sounds more like a runaway trim. The AP Disconnect switch should behave just
like pulling the circuit breaker.

Here's a very similar case which was a runaway trim.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030724X01192&key=1

[Ben Jackson]

On 2007-02-03, Matt Barrow > wrote:
>
> Here's a very similar case which was a runaway trim.
>
> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030724X01192&key=1

What really stunned me about that report is that the probable cause
chain does not end with the pilot.

--
Ben Jackson AD7GD
>
http://www.ben.com/

[Ron Natalie]

Larry Dighera wrote:

> Ummm... If I were Willard, I'd have pulled the autopilot circuit
> breaker. Strange no one thought of that.

My autopilot has no fewer than four ways to disable it. All except
the circuit breaker you're required to test during preflight.

[Matt Barrow]

"Ben Jackson" > wrote in message
...
> On 2007-02-03, Matt Barrow > wrote:
>>
>> Here's a very similar case which was a runaway trim.
>>
>> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030724X01192&key=1
>
> What really stunned me about that report is that the probable cause
> chain does not end with the pilot.
>

Okay...I had a lot of "medicine" last night; could you elaborate on that?

[Ben Jackson]

On 2007-02-03, Matt Barrow > wrote:
> "Ben Jackson" > wrote in message
>>>
>>> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030724X01192&key=1
>>
>> What really stunned me about that report is that the probable cause
>> chain does not end with the pilot.
>
> Okay...I had a lot of "medicine" last night; could you elaborate on that?

Almost every NTSB report that involves the failure of an airplane system
that could have been mitigated by the pilot, no matter how terrible the
user interface, is ultimately blamed on the pilot. In that particular
report there's even a discussion of the steps the pilot could have taken
to fix the runaway trim condition, so I didn't expect them to give the
pilot any slack just because he was busy using both hands and all his
strength to keep the nose up...

--
Ben Jackson AD7GD
>
http://www.ben.com/

[Mxsmanic]

Ben Jackson writes:

> Almost every NTSB report that involves the failure of an airplane system
> that could have been mitigated by the pilot, no matter how terrible the
> user interface, is ultimately blamed on the pilot. In that particular
> report there's even a discussion of the steps the pilot could have taken
> to fix the runaway trim condition, so I didn't expect them to give the
> pilot any slack just because he was busy using both hands and all his
> strength to keep the nose up...

It's ultimately blamed on the pilot because if the pilot doesn't do
everything possible, he'll probably be killed. Saying that it was
really not the pilot's fault doesn't help much if he's dead.

In other words, a pilot should do everything he can to save himself,
whether the interface is good or not.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

[Matt Barrow]

"Ben Jackson" > wrote in message
...
> On 2007-02-03, Matt Barrow > wrote:
>> "Ben Jackson" > wrote in message
>>>>
>>>> http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030724X01192&key=1
>>>
>>> What really stunned me about that report is that the probable cause
>>> chain does not end with the pilot.
>>
>> Okay...I had a lot of "medicine" last night; could you elaborate on that?
>
> Almost every NTSB report that involves the failure of an airplane system
> that could have been mitigated by the pilot, no matter how terrible the
> user interface, is ultimately blamed on the pilot. In that particular
> report there's even a discussion of the steps the pilot could have taken
> to fix the runaway trim condition, so I didn't expect them to give the
> pilot any slack just because he was busy using both hands and all his
> strength to keep the nose up...
>

/quote

The investigation revealed that the K6 relay failure would constitute a
single-point type failure in the electric pitch trim system.

(Key)

Pulling the circuit breaker, which is called for by the checklist in the
event of a trim runaway, would have arrested the trim movement _provided_
(emphasis mine) the circuit breaker was opened prior to the trim reaching
its stop.

Further examination of the system revealed that the autopilot autopilot/trim
disengage switch would not have disengaged the electric trim motor during
the type of failure experienced in the accident airplane.

/end

Sounds like he had just a few seconds to react, and the first order of
business was to disengage the AP, the he had to identify the problem as
runaway trim.

Not bad, for an 80 year old fart.