Plane hits bales of hay

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pelmet
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Plane hits bales of hay

Post by pelmet »

Sadly, a fatal accident.


"C-GVZJ, a privately operated Piper PA-28-161 (Warrior II) aircraft, was departing from a cut hay field, approximately 2 nm East of Black Diamond, AB, with two persons on board. During the takeoff, the aircraft collided with stacked hay bales and crashed; a post-impact fire ensued. The aircraft was destroyed. 1 person received fatal injuries and the other was taken to hospital with serious injuries."

https://globalnews.ca/video/4361987/pas ... of-calgary
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PilotDAR
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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

Post by PilotDAR »

Yeah, round bales are more dense than would appear. I took off from home at night years back with my wife. I left the takeoff more flat than usual, to defeat the black hole effect, and have a little extra speed. The next morning, I noticed that the farmer next door had left a round bale right at the end of my runway! It's a hazard I now watch for during haying season.
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P-40
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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

Post by P-40 »

I was reading through old TSB accident reports a few years back and there was another accident in which a pilot was killed when he hit a bale of hay at night during takeoff/or landing.
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pelmet
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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

Post by pelmet »

Thanks for the replies. Not many details known about this accident but possibly a performance issue.

The last two posts really bring up a separate question of how carefully do you check the runway at an uncontrolled airport with no real access control before you takeoff. Probably almost all of us have taken off without going up and down the runway at night to check it but is it really a good idea. Obviously it works most of the time but there are some close calls. Guess who is responsible to ensure the runway is clear.
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JL
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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

Post by PilotDAR »

Guess who is responsible to ensure the runway is clear.
Yes, and in my case, I have to back taxi the full length for departure. In this case, the runway was fine, it was the departure path which had been affected, I wasn't thinking to check for that, and the landing light won't illuminate below much in climb attitude. Learn and live!
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pelmet
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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

Post by pelmet »

PilotDAR wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:12 pm
Guess who is responsible to ensure the runway is clear.
Yes, and in my case, I have to back taxi the full length for departure. In this case, the runway was fine, it was the departure path which had been affected, I wasn't thinking to check for that, and the landing light won't illuminate below much in climb attitude. Learn and live!
Thanks,

I'm sure that I would have had the same issue and it is a rather obscure situation that I hadn't really thought about before. It was fortunate that you had extra runway available. It is fairly rare for most of us to takeoff on a really performance limited runway where one overflies the end of the runway at a very low altitude especially at night. I suppose if that ever happens, it would make sense to illuminate the area in the immediate vicinity off the end of the runway for departure consideration or possibly for the return flight which could be affected during a flat approach. Non-pilots don't necessarily think about such things and someone could park a large farm vehicle in the wrong place. Strange things happen sometimes.
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pelmet
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Re: Plane hits bales of hay

Post by pelmet »

Report is out. They forgot to set their flaps appropriately for the limited field length takeoff...

http://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-r ... w0111.html

That is why it is a good idea to take the time to double check your critical items shortly before takeoff as was discussed in this thread....

viewtopic.php?f=118&t=119186&p=1064816& ... s#p1064816
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