1976 P337 Accident at LAL 1-14-05
 

There was an accident at Lakeland yesterday afternoon. A link to the newspaper story from Lakeland's local newspaper, The Ledger, is below. I spoke with my former flight instructer this morning, who lives there. He said that the plane took off normally, but then pitched up too high and too rapidly, stalled, and crashed. One CFII, one pilot, both killed. Similar account to the newspaper story. Anyone know these folks or the 76 P337? The owner (not piloting or in the plane) just bought it last week from California and witnessed the entire account.

Keven

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.d...501150404/1039
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Iolite Vaporizer

Thanks, Keven, for sharing this with us so promptly. It's a tragedy for all, but we Skymaster owners need to follow the investigation to see what could have caused such a rapid and exaggerated pitch up. Given the experience of the CFI and that there were two people aboard, it's hard to believe that it was pilot error or incapacitation. One thought that comes to mind -- and I apologize up front for speculating -- is that the pilot's seat rolled back, either due to a fault with the seat track (remember that there is a recurring AD on this) or failure of the pilot to properly engage the seat pins into the rails.

Ernie

337 Crash
 

Certainly an unfortunate incident and, as you say, not very likely to be simple pilot error given the experience of the pilot. As a totally "green" skymaster pilot trainee, I can remember an incident which made an impression on me. I failed to reset the trim to the takeoff range. Instead, it was set near the nose-up limit from a previous landing. My CFI didn't say a word. A few seconds after takeoff, as the aircraft gathered speed, the combination of my normal "slight" backpressure and the noze up trim pitched us up rather dramatically. It took my brain a second or two to process what was hapenning, and airspeed decayed rather quickly. By the time I started exerting strong forward pressure on the yoke to counteract the trim, we were closer to a stall than I care to be that close to the ground. My CFI, nonplussed, but with his hands hovering about an inch from the yoke, remarked dryly, "don't forget to set the trim. This isn't a 172." You can bet I haven't forgotten since.

337 Crash
 

I feel bad for the families,
I agree with Ernie. One of the seats probably moved rearward and the person in that seat pulled the yoke back causing the accident. On my 337H, I had both front seat rails replaced and checked every year since for wear. I always check both front seats at ramp and again before take off. I Explain the seat problem to anyone in co-pilot seat and what could happen if pin slipped. And direct them not to touch the yoke, and tell them the seat will only travel a shot distance if it did happen. I have owned other Cessna aircraft with same problem.

ANN has an article today. Interesting

Here's the ANN story:

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...-a2f044c6ae4e&
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CHEAP CROSMAN DESTROYER GRAINS POINTED 250CT

the pilot of the airplane was my brother in law and there has been speculation that a possible seat track problem caused the accident. Speculation of the accident suggests the pass seat slid back during take off and causing the pass by natural reaction to grab hold of the steering instrument causing the plane to climb at a steep angle. do you know of any known history of problems with the seat track on this model airplane?

We are very sorry for your loss.

Virtually all Cessna general aviation airplane built 20-40 years ago have a seat-rail arrangement which, over time, can fail and cause the seat and occupant to slide backwards. Because of this, and the occurrence of instance(s) where the occupant sliding backwards grabbed the yoke and caused the aircraft to pitch upwards, the manufacturer issued Service Bulletins (SBs) and the FAA issued Airworthiness Directives (ADs) requiring recurring inspections.

The rails have holes in them and the seats have spring-loaded pins which the occupant engages into the holes when he/she has moved the seat to the desired position. If the holes and/or pins are excessively worn (which they shouldn't be if the necessary AD inspection was performed), it is possible for the arrangement to fail even if the seat was properly latched. It is also possible that one of the front seat occupants did not properly latch the spring-loaded seat pins into the rail holes, causing that seat to roll backwards when the aircraft rotated on take-off.

It is, of course, premature to speculate. It might be an entirely different problem, such as the elevator becoming jammed in the up position. If it is the seat rail, it could be a maintenance issue (the rail inspections were not done or were done improperly) or a human issue (failure to do the pre-flight checks and announcements indicated by Dale Campbell in his response above).

Ernie

Seal lock
 

I have a 1975 P337G. Once you get a little wear on the plastic rollers that the seat rides on, it takes a little effort to secure the pins in the holes on the right seat. Remember, this is the seat that sees more movement in getting in and out of the plane than all the other seats combined. It has happened so often that it is now part of my check list to ensure it is secure.

I don't want to speculate as to the cause of the mishap, but you can't eliminate the seat as a potential source of the crash. Also, if trim is set slightly tail low, once you rotate, it takes a lot of force to overcome the back thrust of the yoke. I really mean a lot of force! The plane wants to climb steeply and if you are not use to it, it will pitch up as you gain air speed.

Jerry

Other failures/wear we have seen that one should check:
1. Seat back recline cam for wear or broken teeth P/N 1414111-5 (the jagged looking cam at the bottom of the seat back)
2. Seat roller housing (feet) for wear or broken off teeth that go around the bottom of he seat tracks
Don Nieser
Commodore Aerospace Corp
405-722-4079.

The plane involved was Red/White -

There is a video on TampaBayLive site:

http://www.tampabaylive.com/stories/...114plane.shtml

Could not make out the registration markings...

Bar soap trick
 

BTW, a little 'bar-soap' rubbed on the rails will help the seats move smoothly and easily, allowing the pins to engage in the seat track without forcing.

SkyKing

N42WA - A Personal Connection
 

I was shocked to learn this morning from the FAA's accident website that the victim airplane in Lakeland, FL was N42WA... this was the first P-model I'd seriously looked at in 1999. At the time, it was owned by a fellow from the Seattle area and flown out of Boeing Field with belly mounted aerial mapping-photo equipment. It was a beauty, well maintained and not a ding anywhere. Even though it was all 400 equipped and the radios and everything worked fine, I opted to hold out for a King-equipped bird that had boots and R/STOL. Anyway, I happened to save the recent 'for sale' specs, and the essentials were:

Airframe Total Time: 6,110.6 Hours
Front Engine: Continental TSIO 360 CB5B; 225 hp
1,071.6 Hours since Factory Remanufacture 06/20/99
(1,500 Hour recommended Time Before Overhaul)
Rear Engine: Rolls Royce (Continental) TSIO 360 C5; 225 hp
1,404.7 Hours since Major Overhaul 10/01/92
Front & Rear Propellers: 1,057.7 since New
Annual Date: April 24, 2004

For an asking price of $79K, it was quite a lot of airplane.

Will be very interested in seeing what the NTSB determines as the probable cause. It's interesting to note, however, that in a number of recent crashes of high-performance airplanes, including a number of single-engine models, the airplanes had only recently been purchased, leading me to believe that general unfamiliarity with the airplane systems could very well have been a contributing factor. This is not to say that I'm speculating 'unfamiliarity' was the culprit in this most recent P-model accident. I'm waiting for the NTSB's report.

SkyKing

LAL
 

SkyKing, I tend to agree with you regarding how the mishap could have occurred. As I noted in my response regarding seat lock problems and also the tendency for the plane to steep climb with high yoke force all can lead to unfamiliarty as a source. Sadly, no one will ever know for sure.

Jerry

According to the news reports they had only had the plane since Wed - that only gave them 2 days to come up to speed on the 337, unless they had prior experience with the type. No mention was made about any transition training, which is usually required for insurance coverage??