I'm not an owner nor have I ever flown in a 337. My interest in this case is a somewhat personal one as a mutual non-flying friend had introduced me to the person that was in the right seat, who I only knew by his Polish nickname as Wojtek, pronounced voitek. I flew with him twice when he was still a student pilot. My friend called me this week to tell me that that was the guy I flew with some 12 yrs ago. At the risk of being accused of and flamed for kicking the dead in their grave and patting myself on the back at the same time, I do feel vindicated that I warned my friend not to fly with him. I know this guy piled on the ratings since I've flown with him, but it was his absurd rationalizations about what was possible, permissable that I found troubling, and for my friend's sake, I cautioned him not to fly with him.
I've read all of your posts on this thread and indeed you all seem like such good eggs that I felt compelled to write what I just wrote, for I could feel your collective concern about the airworthiness of your aircraft. 337'S have their issues, which plane doesn't, but I believe in this case there is just to much evidence of people who flaunted, played fast and loose, and thumbed their noses at the laws of physics. Weight limit? Zero fuel weight? If it fits it will lift it. V speeds? Why would they put all those numbers at the end of the A/S indicator, let's see what it's like, besides it's overbuilt 150%, let's have some fun! This kind of thinking can break an EXTRA, or a F-18 for that matter.
1. 15:46:50 the airplane was at 1,400 ft msl, on a heading of 156 degrees at a ground speed of 148 knots.
Then just 10 seconds later 15:47:00, the airplane was at 600 ft msl, on a heading of 062 degrees at a ground speed of 171 knots. If this radar data is to be believed,
that's dropping 800 ft, accelerating 23 kts while turning 94 degrees in 10 seconds with 5 people on board. Are you kidding me?
2. I'm having a tough time untangling the various V and weight limits, with all the different variants, stc, mods, etc., so I submit this for your perusal. I found this on FlightAware. N12NA's flight from KBTV Burlington, VT to 47N Central Jersey Regional on Sept, 2009. Don't know if someone knows how to get the winds aloft data for that day, but check it out. Note the ground speeds and what in my estimation seems like a dive bomber approach. From 16500ft to 2400ft in approx 30 miles, and 6 mins. Doesn't that seem excessive. Here's the track-
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...259ZZ/KBTV/47N
Here's the radar log-
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...V/47N/tracklog
One last thing before I step down from my soapbox, I love aviation. Been in it for 42yrs, 20yrs as a pilot. I felt very proud to have achieved that. Human nature being what it is, I believed that it showed a special sense of competence in an individual to be able to do this. It pisses me off when jokers come along with bird brained notions and make all of us flying look like one step above the village idiot, not to mention the loss of innocent people who place their lives in our trust. Great fun that it can be, it's an unforgiving hobby we've chosen. One fool and in this case maybe two and we all get a black eye. One last thing, last annual inspection was done Feb09. Maybe, if only, could of, might have caught a gremlin, but I think the only gremlins were in the two front seats.
Peace Out