An unfortunate first...

[av8rmsu]

As pilots we all have firsts. Some of which we will never forget...our first feel of the controls, our first solo, our first time we greased a landing.

I often look back at these firsts that I have had in my career as an aviator, albeit a short one, and see them as positive stepping stones towards my ultimate goal.

The funnest day that I have ever had in aviation was about two months ago on a gorgeous Sunday. My boss Aubie, Tim, Tim's nine year old son Adam ( all good friends), and I started out at daylight from my base airport in Tupelo, MS. We were in Tim's immaculate Cessna 195. The day's plans had us going to Guthrie, OK. We were headed to Radial's Limited to let my boss do flight tests on his 195. He is getting an STC for fuel injectors on his Jacob's Radial. The first ever successfully injected radial.

After a three and a half hour flight, the wheels touched down on a grass strip outside of Guthrie. We kicked the boss man out, he had a busy day, us on the other hand pointed north to Beaumont, Kansas. We were headed to the Beaumont Hotel. We landed on another grass strip on the edge of town followed the taxi signs through a small neighborhood, stopped at the stop sign, and parked in the "Bent Props Lot". Fried chicken is the Sunday specialty. Trust me, it is great!!! If you are ever looking for something to do on a clear day, go eat a hundred dollar piece of chicken in Beaumont.

After lunch we were back on our way to pick up the boss man. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon while he did test flights with the Cessna Test Pilot from Witchita (another 195 driver).

We finally pointed back east and arrive back in Tupelo around 10 pm. I was worn out. A wonderful 10 hours in the logbook and a day I will never forget.

I hope to have kids, like Adam, someday and be able to take them across Middle America on journies like this one.

Now is where the unfortunate part of it begins. My boss calls me last night around 6:30 (Thanksgiving Night). He asked if I had seen the news. I said no and he said I might want to sit down. I had no idea what he was going to tell me. This is when it took a turn for the worst...

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Relatives watched pilot, son die

By Jeremy Hudson
jehudson@clarionledger.com

Relatives were watching Thanksgiving day as a plane apparently struck a power line and crashed while a Montgomery County man and his 9-year-old son attempted a low fly-over near the family home, an official said.

Timothy D. Mitchell, 38, and his son, Timothy Adam Mitchell, both of the Huntsville community near Kilmichael, died about 3 p.m. Thursday when their Cessna 195 crashed in Winona, officials said.

"There was a lot of family there for Thanksgiving and the father was apparently trying to buzz low over the house," said Montgomery County Coroner Karl Oliver. "The plane actually crashed in the child's grandparents' back yard. It was about 30 yards from their house."

FAA investigators were in Winona Friday looking into the crash, Oliver said. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the crash remains under investigation and "we don't release preliminary information."

The 1953 model Cessna airplane, which belonged to Timothy D. Mitchell, probably struck a power line before it crashed near the house at 630 Hendrix Road, Oliver said.

A dirt race track near where the crash occurred is owned by the family, Oliver said. Mitchell was flying near his in-laws' home, Oliver said.

No relatives could immediately be reached for comment.




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I hope we can all learn from this and strive to be better pilots and aviators.

His family and mutually close friends are in my prayers.


This is my first friend to be killed doing what he loved.

[MikeD]

Yet again, we're still not finding new ways to kill ourselves.

[EDUC8-or]

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Yet again, we're still not finding new ways to kill ourselves.

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Classy remarks to a sad story there MikeD.

I for one am very sorry to hear about your friend.

[SteveC]

Sorry to hear of your loss av8rmsu. Sad days.

The saddest part of the story is that it was completely preventable.

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I hope we can all learn from this and strive to be better pilots and aviators.

His family and mutually close friends are in my prayers.

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Amen and amen.

Very tragic story. My parayers are with them, their family, and you.

[BlazingRicker]

Well said EDUC8-or. Sad to hear of the loss and our prayers are with all the families involved.

[I_Money]

I think the reality is, MikeD coming from a military background has lost more friends to aviation single handedly, then 95% of the user on this site combined. What makes this so sad, is how preventable it was!

[EDUC8-or]

Agreed, and I respect very much what MikeD does and the information he has to offer, but it's all about timing, tact, and how it was worded.

This is a very sad story and I appreciate av8rmsu's willingness to share in hopes that we can all think very carefully before we do anything purposefully that might jeopardize the safety of flight.

[aviategw]

Yup, IMHO, MikeD did sound a bit crass. That being said, his remarks don't appear to intend any harm or to degrade any memory of the deceased. The simple fact is that aviation is a dangerous business. Without the proper operational risk management, occurences, incidents, and accidents, some fatal, will continue to happen.


My thoughts and prayers go out to families involved.

[Doug Taylor]

I've known MikeD for about sixteen years, he didn't mean it the way it sounded.

In aviation you try to find a way to seperate the person from the event. Great people run into deadly unfortunately circumstances every day. But when it comes to looking at an accident, we've got to seperate our love of the person from the event so hopefully we can learn and live.

[DE727UPS]

A very tragic story.

It would be good for us all to remember not to do stupid things in airplanes.

[MikeD]

[ QUOTE ]
I've known MikeD for about sixteen years, he didn't mean it the way it sounded.

In aviation you try to find a way to seperate the person from the event. Great people run into deadly unfortunately circumstances every day. But when it comes to looking at an accident, we've got to seperate our love of the person from the event so hopefully we can learn and live.

[/ QUOTE ]

Precisely. Anyone taking my remarks as crass isn't seeing the bigger picture. I've lost too many friends and people I know to this business both military and civilian; from many different causes, but namely pilot error.

And the sad fact is, we aren't finding new ways to kill ourselves. Try to hide from the truth all you want, people, but it's there staring all of us in the face all the time. This isn't the first time unplanned, unnecessary and/or ill-performed aerial maneuvers, normally by untrained personnel, have killed someone; and it won't be the last, unfortunately.

EDU8-tor, before you jump to a conclusion about my commentary, try being where I've been and seen what I've seen in my career, and you'd know exactly where I'm coming from and how emotionally detached I not only can be, but need to be when it comes to aviation safety.

I take aviation safety very seriously. I deal with accidents on a matter-of-fact basis. No fluff, no half-truth's, no BS. I call it like it is, in the hopes that we can learn and prevent for the future, be that in the next 5 minutes, or next 5 years. The learning from an accident begins following the accident, and never ends.

Aside from the factual aspect of it, what is tragic is that he (the pilot) took his kid with him whilst performing this endeavor.

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"There was a lot of family there for Thanksgiving and the father was apparently trying to buzz low over the house,"

"The plane actually crashed in the child's grandparents' back yard. It was about 30 yards from their house."

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Sheer luck that he didn't take many more with him.

...........But it seems no one noticed that part.