The Cessna Citation 550 carrying retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family had flight instrument issues before it clipped an approach light and caught fire as it slid to a stop on a runway at Statesville Airport in North Carolina last Dec. 18. Biffle and six others, including his wife and two children, were killed. The NTSB’s preliminary report noted the pilot-in-command was certified to fly the plane with a certified second-in-command in the right seat, but the person in the right seat was a relatively low-hour private pilot who appeared to be filling the role of the second pilot. The NTSB was able to glean some details from the poor-quality cockpit voice recorder tape, but it didn’t reveal much about the final seconds of the flight in which the plane hit the ground about 1,000 feet short of the runway after knocking two light bulbs off the light tower.
There were conversations captured on the CVR that indicated the pilot was having issues with instruments on his side of the panel, but there were no such comments from the right-side pilot. The pilot took off VFR and intended to pick up an IFR clearance in the air for the trip to Sarasota. The plane reached a maximum altitude of about 4,500 feet MSL before turning back to the airport and entering a descent. In the five seconds before the CVR and GPS data ended, the plane’s indicated airspeed dropped to 93 knots.
It is so convenient to depart VFR and pick up your clearance in the air, as long as it is decent VFR weather. Also helps out ATC. The problem is that if you take off in MVFR weather and ATC is crushed, they tell you to “maintain VFR” until they can work you in. This is awkward and risky in a piston aircraft. I can’t imagine doing it in a jet.
It is so easy to get an IFR clearance via cell phone anymore that it borders on asinine not to do it with any question about the weather.
If I understood correctly, all weather issues should be answered before departure, both local or enroute whatever is needed. If you are picking up from an ATC facility, not FSS, then frequently they only have time to find you flight plan and issue an clearance, but not additional time to do weather research for you. I may have misunderstood.
Stateside Airport? Maybe you mean Statesville?
Thanks. Fixed
When ATL pick up the phone… lol!!!