June 22, 201510 yr This past weekend I was doing some hand flying, getting ready for my bi-annual. So I took out the Katana DA20. Pre - Pre -flight complete. Weather looks good. From MD to Ohio. Pre-flight complete. Needed to add some oil. Oil door won't close. Ok, maybe I can get away with it...taxi to end of runway...take a quick look outside...nope oil door flapping in the wind. Shot down and fix the oil door. Ok, oil door closed...just had to hold the button a little longer. Ok, open flight plan... and take off. Contact center get flight following. Flying flight plan...ok..maybe 45km away. descend to 4,500. Getting a little cloudy. Center told me to contact ohio center...ok...push button to contact ohio center...pushing and talking...holy molly...wrong button I hit trim nose down... I'm pointed straight down.. Now...here's where the lesson learn comes into play. One...I could not pull the nose up fast enough before the airplane entered the Vneo speed. Once I got the nose up...it just keep going up...until I did a back flip. It just keep flipping...so during the up swing I decided to put full flaps in and push the nose forward. Ok...back flips stopped. Now, she just pitches down and pitches up until stall... Lesson two, the terrain awareness is great on the GNS 530W until it's an emergency. When I wasn't low to the ground the screen is black and I can clearly see the nearest airport. I couldn't tune anything because I had to keep the plane under control. So once I got too low the whole screen went bright yellow and I could no longer clearly see anything. So at this point I had to turn to the nearest airport page in between pitching up and down and fast as I could, because one I was getting closer to the ground and the plane was stalling and then banking left or right. So, I tried to make the airport and figure I couldn't make it, so I turned around and headed towards the busy highway below. Almost made it...but hit a tree. The back flipping was caused by the Horizontal stabilizer being broken. Thank God I was flying Aerosoft's Katana DA20. Hope you enjoyed my lesson learned. -Ray
Create an account or sign in to comment