Over the weekend, I attended a model airplane club's annual event where remote control model planes and cars enthusiasts get together at a different location each year. This year, it was held in Virginia. A friend of mine belongs to the club and has about a dozen different planes. A few he built on his own. He invited me to to go along and I agreed to go, but only because it sounded interesting with seeing all of these remote controlled planes and cars.
By luck, I started talking to a man who had built a WWII plane. It was a replica of a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, which I believe he said was a fighter plane. We spoke for about a half hour before I learned he was one of JFK, Jr's instructors. He told me that because of John's busy schedule, he didn't always have the same instructor and in fact, he had three different instructors.
We spoke mainly about his accident, which was really caused by his own ego. John had his IFR rating (Instrument Flight Rules) to fly at night, but not a lot of experience at it and even less experience flying solo at night. He had flown to and from Martha's Vineyard on 35 different occasions in just the last 15 months prior to the accident. five of those flights were at night. However, he only had 55 hours flying time at night.
His Piper Saratoga was having autopilot issues, so he decided not to use it on this flight. He told me that he didn't have a lot of time in his newly bought plane, but did well the few times he had flown with him in the Piper. Evidently, as he flew out over the water from New York, the weather changed with fog and a light mist, which sometimes is normal in those conditions.
His opinion was that he had spoken to John just earlier and he had complained about how tired he was, so he recommended that he stay in a hotel near the airport and leave at day break the next day, but John told him they were expected that night and he wanted to get there and not disappoint anyone.
He thinks that because he was tired that most likely fatigue and spatial disorientation led to his accident. The plane had gone into (what we call a graveyard spiral), which is generally unrecoverable at the low altitude he was flying. It was normally only an hour and fifteen minute flight, but when the pilot is tired, that's a long time.
Spatial disorientation happens to a lot of new pilots, especially at night. When anyone flies out over the open waters with no lights below them and it's a foggy night, so they can't see the stars above them, it's like being in a huge abyss. Just imagine being in a dark room and in a closet with the door shut. You have no reference where anything is. I have never been in that situation, but I have spoken to pilots who have and they tell me it's as scary as you can even imagine. He did say the one instructor offered to go with him, but he turned him down, which was probably his downfall.
When I started my career flying, my first instructor told me that if I don't ever remember anything else he ever told me to remember this, "You are never as good as you think you are." I never forgot that and I often agreed with it.
By luck, I started talking to a man who had built a WWII plane. It was a replica of a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, which I believe he said was a fighter plane. We spoke for about a half hour before I learned he was one of JFK, Jr's instructors. He told me that because of John's busy schedule, he didn't always have the same instructor and in fact, he had three different instructors.
We spoke mainly about his accident, which was really caused by his own ego. John had his IFR rating (Instrument Flight Rules) to fly at night, but not a lot of experience at it and even less experience flying solo at night. He had flown to and from Martha's Vineyard on 35 different occasions in just the last 15 months prior to the accident. five of those flights were at night. However, he only had 55 hours flying time at night.
His Piper Saratoga was having autopilot issues, so he decided not to use it on this flight. He told me that he didn't have a lot of time in his newly bought plane, but did well the few times he had flown with him in the Piper. Evidently, as he flew out over the water from New York, the weather changed with fog and a light mist, which sometimes is normal in those conditions.
His opinion was that he had spoken to John just earlier and he had complained about how tired he was, so he recommended that he stay in a hotel near the airport and leave at day break the next day, but John told him they were expected that night and he wanted to get there and not disappoint anyone.
He thinks that because he was tired that most likely fatigue and spatial disorientation led to his accident. The plane had gone into (what we call a graveyard spiral), which is generally unrecoverable at the low altitude he was flying. It was normally only an hour and fifteen minute flight, but when the pilot is tired, that's a long time.
Spatial disorientation happens to a lot of new pilots, especially at night. When anyone flies out over the open waters with no lights below them and it's a foggy night, so they can't see the stars above them, it's like being in a huge abyss. Just imagine being in a dark room and in a closet with the door shut. You have no reference where anything is. I have never been in that situation, but I have spoken to pilots who have and they tell me it's as scary as you can even imagine. He did say the one instructor offered to go with him, but he turned him down, which was probably his downfall.
When I started my career flying, my first instructor told me that if I don't ever remember anything else he ever told me to remember this, "You are never as good as you think you are." I never forgot that and I often agreed with it.
