On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 20:55:24 GMT, Jay Honeck wrote:
I wonder if there are many people out there who actually take these kind
of chances.

I've not personally witnessed any of the kind outlined in the article.

However, I see enough pilots simply jump in and go -- without so much as
checking the oil or looking in the gas tanks -- to understand how this sort
of thing happens.

There was a Beech Duke at Houston Gulf. I swear that the guy who flew
it (about once every four months) wouldn't have noticed if the right
wing was missing beyond the engine nascelle (until he tried to rotate
of course). The plane had a LOT of defects which were readily apparent
to the most cursory inspection, including some very bad corrosion
on the vertical stab.

There was another at SPX too, who crashed a Bonanza on his third attempt
to get in on the ILS into Hobby (the weather was too bad). On his third
attempt he ran out of gas. This was a Bo with the tip tanks, too. He
ended up crashing into a house. The only thing he did right is control
the aircraft all the way to impact. Somehow he survived with only minor
injuries. He had delusions of rebuilding the plane too (and from what I
saw there wasn't an unbent piece of metal left).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"