Charlotte businessman and philanthropist William "Skipper" Beck set out to practice takeoffs and landings the morning he died when his Cirrus SR-22 crashed at Rock Hill-York County Airport, his wife told investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.
Beck, 49, normally flew with a copilot, who was also a certified flight instructor, Lynn Beck told investigators, according to the NTSB's preliminary report on the Sept. 11 crash. The NTSB released the report this week.
The report also says investigators found no evidence of an engine malfunction. A final report will take months.
Click here to view the report.
The Becks flew with the instructor to Teterboro, N.J., on Sept. 7, according to the report. Skipper Beck and the instructor returned to the Rock Hill airport on Sept. 9 and planned to return to Teterboro on Sept. 13.
- Joe Marusak
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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4 comments:
Could it have been a power-on stall condition; i.e. too steep a climb on take-off resulting in a stall? The recovery led to a steep left bank and loss of altitude?
Based on the readouts from the RDM, that is a likely scenario. Low altitude departure stalls can be challenging to recover from. The initial reading looks like he was in a good climb configuration, and then executed the right turn. My guess is a cross-controlled stall that he didn't know how to recover from.
For the non-aviation readers, a stall is a condition where the airflow over the wing is disturbed (usually by increasing the angle of the wing relative to the wind too far) and this disturbance causes the wings to stop producing lift.
Max manuevering speed in the SR-22 is 142 KIAS. He was at 163 KIAS when he began the right turn. The 69 degree bank. Max bank angle is 60 degrees.
He was way above stall speed at all times, so no stall could have occurred. He exceeded several design limits at takeoff and just lost control and flew the airplane into the ground.
An aircraft can stall at any speed if it exceeds the critical angle of attack.
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