Cirrus SR22 downed during commercial manoeuvre practice in Georgia
A private pilot working toward his commercial certificate was practising a power-off 180-degree approach with an instructor at a Georgia airfield when the aircraft came down. The pilot held an instrument rating and about 380 hours.
A Georgia pilot, 52, was working toward a commercial certificate. He had an instrument rating and roughly 380 hours, and was flying a Cirrus SR22. With the day free, he contacted an instructor he knew and arranged to go flying, according to an account of the accident report and the aircraft's recorded data.
The commercial licence tests a 180-degree power-off approach. Power comes to idle on the downwind leg abeam a chosen point on the runway, and the aircraft must touch down on or beyond that point but within 200 feet of it.
The pair flew several circuits on Runway 20 at Barwick-LaFayette Airport. The likely target point was the displaced threshold, 610 feet from the approach end, since the runway numbers sit about 200 feet beyond it.
On the first circuit the Cirrus crossed the threshold high and landed long, the recording indicated. The second ended the same way, and the pilot may have gone around without touching down at all. He turned continuously from downwind to final on both attempts.
On the third attempt he flew the downwind leg closer to the runway and began his turn earlier. He appears not to have used flaps on the earlier approaches but did so on this one, and his rate of descent was about 200 feet per minute greater. The extract ends mid-sentence there and does not describe the outcome of the third approach.
Sources
- flyingmag.comOff Target: The High Cost of Trying to Salvage a Bad Approach