C J Campbell wrote:
The landing gear was extended, though, so it appears they were expecting
to land.

CJ,

This one confused me. Here are these guys flying VFR into IMC, at *full
throttle* and *full mixture*. That sure seems like a climb out of IMC
(stratus layer) - usually up to 1500-2500' here), or at least a 'fast
cruise'. So why then was the gear down?

But I don't believe the gear was down. Allow me to explain. The following
quotes are from the NTSB I originally gave. "The landing gear are extended
and retracted via a hydraulic system.", "In the down position the main mount
actuators are retracted...", "When the landing gear is retracted the main
landing gear hydraulic actuators are extended..." and "The landing gear
actuator was extended." - so it appears that 'actuator extended' means that
the gear was retracted and vice versa. I'd be happy to hear from Commander
experts if I got anything wrong.

I've been following this accident closely because he took off from my home
airport, I am *very* familiar with route, I took note of the weather that
day when I heard about the accident, I watched the aircraft fly along Hwy
101 around (usually below) 1000' MSL for about 30 miles (on SJC's RADAR),
and the 'fire' story added mystery. It's very sad that a pilot lost his
life and the question that remains to be answered is why no IFR clearance
out of RHV? Plane not IFR capable (at the time), pilots not current, a
delay getting out of RHV, something else?

Anyway, just thought I'd update the group.

Hilton