Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Middle River Aviation: Private pilots must undergo rigorous training - Owner talks on pilot requirements (with video)

MIDDLE RIVER, Md. —Private pilots have to undergo rigorous training and that training gets tougher depending on the aircraft the pilot flies.

"A good pilot's never going to let his plane get that slow. You're putting yourself into a bad situation," Kevin Walsh said.

Walsh owns Middle River Aviation, a flight training school. He said the pilot of Monday's plane crash in Montgomery County would have had to have tons of experience.

In order to get a commercial pilot's license and to be able to fly the Phenom 100, he would have needed hundreds of hours of flight time, to have passed written, oral and flight exams. Plus, he would have needed instrument flight training and have a multi-engine rating. Even with all of that though, pilot error still happens.

"I've read the plane was about 100 knots and it was going too slow to let another small aircraft land in front of him. Those planes don't like to fly 100 knots," Walsh said.

Walsh said he believes that because the plane was flying way too slow, it stalled and went into a spin and was unrecoverable. The NTSB has said that it does not look like there was any mechanical failure with the aircraft.

"A lot of the accidents are pilot error. Even with mechanical failure, it doesn't mean the plane's going to crash. What leads to crashes a lot of the times are mechanical failure compounded by pilot error. Some where in the end, it ends up pilot error of some kind," Walsh said.

Walsh said that pilots need to be current as well as proficient. That means pilots need to fly on a regular basis at least once a week. If they don't, they lose their proficiency.

Story and video:  http://www.wbaltv.com

NTSB Identification: DCA15MA029
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Monday, December 08, 2014 in Gaithersburg, MD
Aircraft: EMBRAER EMB-500, registration: N100EQ
Injuries: 6 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators traveled in support of this investigation and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

On December 8, 2014, about 1041 Eastern Standard Time (EST), an Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100, N100EQ, impacted terrain and houses about 0.75 miles short of runway 14 while on approach to Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, Maryland. The airline transport rated pilot and two passengers were fatally injured as well as three persons on the ground. The airplane was destroyed during the impact and ensuing fire. Marginal visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and the flight was operating on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan. The airplane was registered to and operated by Sage Aviation LLC., of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. The flight originated from Horace Williams Airport (IGX), Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with GAI as its intended destination.

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