hhaha.....

 

I heard the intercept over the radio. Air Force kept repeating "Larry, put on your oxygen mask!"

His wife must have been on board as well; Air Force pilot called her by name as well.

Coast Guard chase plane arrived in the area of the crash shortly after it went in the drink; I don't know if they spotted any wreckage. Kingston was vectoring them to the area of the crash as I got out of range.

Surreal.

Tailwinds, Larry.

 

This as the portable hypoxia chamber from Oklahoma City is visiting our area for three days. Hope that people take advantage of this training and that it someday saves their lives.

 

According to CBS News, the pilot can be heard on LiveATC saying that there is a problem and requesting a lower altitude. There is some delay in ATC working out a lower altitude, and eventually clears the plane to only FL200. Which is acknowledged, but the plane never descends and no further communication.

This is a tragic reminder that when you have an emergency, don't hesitate to STATE that it is an emergency to get priority handling and don't hesitate to exercise PIC authority when necessary. At 25,000 the time of useful consciousness is just a few minutes.

IIRC on the TBM, the oxygen masks are under the seats. Not the most obvious location to remember when already suffering hypoxia.

 

A buddy of mine told me the TBM 900 controller is "intergrated into the Garmin" or something, which at the time I just said "oh" but now I don't know what he meant. Same buddy said the TBM 900 system is "improved" and "changed" from prior TBMS

 

They are above the opposing seat, slightly above and behind the head position of that occupant. The rear seats have airline "drop down" style masks out of the top right side inbetween the club seats.

The Piper Mailubu/Mirage have masks(not quick don) under the copilot seat, which is probably what plane you are thinking of. The Meridian has a single quick donning mask in the cabinet behind the copilot seat.

The TBM850 G1000 versions changed the pressurization system to a single dial, you merely set the altitude like the old systems, but you had no control over rate, pretty easy to read.

The new TBM900 version removes that dial, and the system is integrated into the G1000. Once you make a flight plan, you use a bezel to set the landing field elevation, and that's it for managing the system. I have not flown the plane, I got my ground run in with one of my former coworkers, as I was supposed to do a demo flight while he was on vacation and it fell through. It was thoroughly explained to me so I hope I am not misleading how it works.

Another side note, this guy has supposedly owned 2 TBM's prior to this, and is an officer in the TBMOPA group.

 

Uhmmm,

NO! You do what needs to be done to save your life and the lives of your passenger THEN and only THEN do you advise ATC of what you are doing and declare an emergency. It is spelled out very concisely in the FARs. I've lost a cabin at altitude in an A-320at FL320. YOU DO NOT wait for an ATC clearance YOU DO NOT declare an emergency yet, you put on your mask, you start your rapid descent THEN and only then do you advise ATC that you are doing an rapid D and declare an emergency.

§91.123 Compliance with ATC clearances and instructions.

(a) When an ATC clearance has been obtained, no pilot in command may deviate from that clearance unless an amended clearance is obtained, an emergency exists, or the deviation is in response to a traffic alert and collision avoidance system resolution advisory. However, except in Class A airspace, a pilot may cancel an IFR flight plan if the operation is being conducted in VFR weather conditions. When a pilot is uncertain of an ATC clearance, that pilot shall immediately request clarification from ATC.

(b) Except in an emergency, no person may operate an aircraft contrary to an ATC instruction in an area in which air traffic control is exercised.

(c) Each pilot in command who, in an emergency, or in response to a traffic alert and collision avoidance system resolution advisory, deviates from an ATC clearance or instruction shall notify ATC of that deviation as soon as possible.


(d) Each pilot in command who (though not deviating from a rule of this subpart) is given priority by ATC in an emergency, shall submit a detailed report of that emergency within 48 hours to the manager of that ATC facility, if requested by ATC.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

No clearance needed when it comes to emergency operations.

 

You can listen to the whole thing here:

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kg...2014-1400Z.mp3

On several transmissions he clearly does sound hypoxic. With hindsight it is pretty easy to realize but it would be difficult to pick up on it at the time. He does say "indication is not correct with the plane" at 4:10 and asks for even lower than 250. A first hypoxic transmission is 7:15 - 7:35 (first he "empty keys" a transmission, center tries again, then sounds somewhat fatigued / slow.) and at 8:10 he has unintelligible transmission.

At 8:44 there is a clearly hypoxic-sounding transmission. His response is "Kilo November 900 Kilo November" with slurred speech. By 10 minutes you can hear mic being keyed but no consistent response.

Sad. Hope the manufacturer and NTSB figure out what happened to the hardware.

Can anybody here comment on personally doing hypoxia training? Was it worth it?

 

From a safety aspect and depending in the environments that you fly in - - there is little more valuable training.
Search ROBD in posts for a few other APC threads dealing with hypoxia and training devices/opportunities.

 

I feel it was worth it.

I was able to experience hypoxic symptoms that are specific to me. Each person is different, and because of that each of us will have different symptoms compared to a different individual. To bad it's so difficult to get on the schedule for one due to availability, or my schedule because I would do it again in a heartbeat.

In my opinion, I think it would be a great idea for everyone to take a ride in a altitude chamber once before transitioning into a high performance aircraft or any turbo jet.

To bad there's not a lot of available chambers around.