Story will come out in the investigation

Well ... i gotta say that was very nice landing. I was expecting something a bit rougher. He did an excellent job of staying calm and keeping the aircraft straight and level.

I was kinda' wondering to myself ... what if he had just departed from Catalina Island? That would have shaved roughly 22 miles off the trip, compared to the flying distance from California [I didn't check where he departed from - maybe that was the problem]. He was only 13 miles short of the island of Hilo - probably would have made it. I'm not sure if they have fuel at Catalina normally. But it seems like you could ferry some spare supplies out there.

Just joking really - but it does make you wonder :-)

Pete2

Sue,

I am a pilot (Instrument Rated). That guy broke about 17 flying commandments, and a MINIMUM of one FAA law.

Let's lookit what is not being said in the news...

The fargin Cessna 310 (depending on the type of Cessna 310) has an advertised range of between range between 640 to 1955 miles.

File that away a minnit.

Now... Guess how far it is from Monterey, CA to Hilo, HI...

It is 2300 miles!

YIKES! The stoopid dingleberry is lucky he made it half-way!

What was he thinking?

That plane burns 28 gallons an hour while it is in the air. It cruises at 178knots. If you do THAT math, the dang thing has a range of 640 miles!!! Mebbe you can trim it up, maximize your cruise fuel expenditure, try for tailwinds (wrong way to try, BTW), and get a coupla hundred miles added.

There's more. The FAA (Federal Aviation Rule) says that when you do cross-country flights, you are REQUIRED to have a minimum of 10% of your fuel still on board when you reach your destination. (FAR 121 calls for a 10% International Contingency Fuel from point A - B.) That is not a suggestion. It is a bloody LAW.

This foo' never had a chance. It is absolutely amazing that for all the things he did wrong, he still got that far before destroying the airplane.

He really should have expected to crash AT LEAST 345 miles from shore.

I can guaran-dang-tee you one thing: That boy will be a LOOOONG time before he is allowed to touch another plane. The FAA has sharp fingernails, no error.

And making it necessary to send out several other aircraft, a rescue team, and so on costs big bucks.

It wasn't even his plane.

Some several Somebodies are really, REALLY annoyed.

One mo' thang... as any pilot will tell you, it is desperately important to keep track of where you are. Tain't hard to do this at all, BTW. Easypeasy.

One MAJOR reason to keep track of where you are and how long you have been flying:

You can tell long before you reach the Point Of No Return whether you are gonna make it.

If you are NOT gonna make it, you are REQUIRED to turn around before the PONR. I fergit the FAR number on that one, but it is a no-brainer...

He wasn't flying under part 121 (Air Carrier). He would have had a Special Flight Permit (Ferry Permit) and ferry fuel tanks.

What we don't know about this is exactly how much fuel the 310 carried during that flight. That Cessna official range of "640 to 1955 miles" is based on how much fuel Cessna provided for in the way of permanent fuel tanks. Some aircraft not normally suitable for trans-pac will carry additional fuel in bladders inside the aircraft.

However, regardless how much fuel he carried, it wasn't enough. FAA & NTSB will be asking some very hard questions.

Walt's point about the pilot not turning around prior to PONR is absolutely right. Maybe the winds picked up after PONR -- maybe this, maybe that. We don't know what we don't know.

During my first squadron tour, we would take-off with ~60,000 lbs of fuel. Squadron requirements were to plan to be overhead the field with 8000 lbs prior to landing, which is more than the FAA minimum. There were additional rules regarding dipping the tanks, calibrating fuel gauges, yada yada yada which could make it okay to get back with 6000 lbs overhead, but the one time a crew came back with 4000 lbs, an a**chewing followed. The crew knew exactly how much fuel was in each tank, but they came back below minimum fuel so -- okay, an a**chewing is maybe too strong, the pilot got a slap on the wrist and was told to not do it again. But he landed back home and the plane was just fine.

After the investigation, this pilot/company will probably get more than a slap on the wrist from FAA. I wonder how many times they've done this and gotten away with it.

While I agree that he SHOULD have had a Ferry Permit...

Dunno if he did.

IF he did, sumbody checked off on range... and the PONR was ignored anyway.

LOTTA lotta questions gone be axed.

Spot on alla way, bro.

What a waste of a purty airyoplane. Not that I could afford to fly the dang thing. 28 cotton-pickin' gallons per hour.

Gawd. I'd have to sell my sister into a Turkish brothel just for a weekend flight.

Sell your sister into an Italian brothel - you will realize a greater return on investment....

No permit, no flight plan.



We call it ETP (Equal Time Point) now so as not to scare the pax.

Here's his FlightAware track and info: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N23BT/history/20111007/1300Z/KMRY/PHTO

More here: http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=139011