Real Pilot Story: Pinch Hitting a King Air

I'm Doug white I've lived in a little town of archibald Louisiana for probably twice up here at the time of the incident with the king air that was Easter Sunday April 12 2009 I was a private pilot single-engine land we took off of Marco I don't know what happened to make me look at Joe but I looked at him his chin was on his chest said Joe Joe and this log popped over as the word lolled over just kind of hung with his eyes open and he's looking at the ceiling right then I knew he was in distress and I knew we were in trouble and I knew and my thoughts were other than those two things I've got to do something I was working the fort myer sector at Miami Center directly above Fort Myers approach November 5 5 Niner Delta whiskey checked in which was Joel Kaiba and I gave him a clearance to climb to 14,000 feet and he didn't read it back that's when we heard white checked in my dessert qinger 5:5 murder dealt with fact that matters at the whisky - I hear you loud and clear homie I got Claire emerging apologies John characters I need help up here five Niner Delta whisky Roger and Samoa and immediately when I heard that I thought he was a co-pilot because he's talking on the radio's so I thought I have somebody in there that could fly the plane so he was still in Fort Meyers airspace climbing out so I helped underline with them and said hey I got a unconscious pilot this guy needs to get back down you want me to put them back on you in fact I've mounted that the whiskey to your attention I need to get this going overthrowing all implying a king here if I've matter that the whiskey I understand unconscious I need a king of power to talk all right - stand by you're not a doctor whisky understand you are able to fly okay engine I need to get off visit I'm going through 11,000 I need to get level higher that's why I left with my assistant controller Jessica Anaya and we're like oh boy here we go the yonder the supervisor what's going on and across the room and she starts hopping on different lines coordinating with other controllers trying to types of Doug I'm trying to talk to all these other airplanes and yelling across room hey give me somebody who knows something butter king air now and November Niner Delta whiskey okay and you think the autopilot is on I know cold and I honor that the whiskey a right that can you tell where that student says it's going to climb to the altitude set is 10,000 I'm going through 13 now should have leveled off at 10 so I was Warlow especially Hotel Charlie come back - oh no one 27.24 a boy Sarah after four five a kilo one mega 2050 costs gotta maintain 1-0 thousand a250 not five five Niner Delta whisky only and understand we're trying to find some help out here and you stay on the climate steady climb but I need to stop the climb yes supervisors other controllers people talking my ear so I'm trying to listen to everybody at once plus I got all these other aircraft and Jessica and I on the landlines coordinating stuff yelling across the room to other sectors and jacent to us tell them hey keep that guy over space don't put him on my frequency but I will not a devil is he I'm here don't worry I will kind of find the solution to that stand by one yeah I felt kind of helpless I don't want to keep climbing but at the same time I'm still trying to determine okay if you disengages it can you fly the plane on his own Lisa grim out there and she started assistant Doug I flew we're jets for a corporate company prior to coming to air traffic control so once they realized that I was at work that day they're just trying to get me out of where I am all we knew at that point is a pilot had possibly died and that passenger had taken over the plane and he really didn't have any flight experience and when I'm on the frequency that's when Doug had so you hear that panic so the first thing I wanted to do before I worried about any of the details is calming down once I realized that he had a little bit of pilot experience to me it was if I can simplify this plane as much as possible cuz I was a flight instructor for years as well it's a plane no matter how complicated it still flies by the same basic rules there's still lift drag rudder yoke basic instruments there's a horizon outside we can make this work I just wanted to give them calm confident that he could fly it God does a whiskey autopilot we're going to have you when have you hand fly the plane I did the gazing our pilot I need to pull back on the throttle sub correct a Venetian all the older you are you hidden the earth now limit the Oklahoma disengage the autopilot Emma's had that 20 i disengaged it I'm flying airplane by well when I killed the autopilot the plane was trimmed for 2,000 foot per minute time so I had some real strong nose up trim I thought that was a heaviest thing I never grabbed and holed up in my life how he used to middle 172 trim wheel was way over on the other side of the cockpit and the pilots leg was up against the trim wheel and of course I know I was told and I found out later than I had electric trim button on my phone but I didn't go to King here 200 school that day I didn't know where that was that but anyway I got my hand and worked it between the outside of Joe's leg and the inside of the trim wheel to where I get the front of my one of my fingers on the notch as a trim wheel and rolled forward a couple of notches to give me some relief so I'm at 17,000 give or take flying north some semblance of level flight I don't remember merci I know it was over 200 knots you know I'm used to 85 or 90 knots along with the wider the runway you can't laugh now if I got the whiskey Rogers in this whole time we're on the phone with four miners telling them get the airplanes out of the way get this frequency ready you have this guy come so that he would have as much help as much air space as much frequency time as he needed and as we could possibly get him hey number nine adieu number nine or Delta whiskey just so you know what we're doing here we're going to get you down to one one thousand I want to make you give you a turn to the west I'm going to hand you off to Fort Myers approach and they've got some controllers there that also a pilot experience and they're going to talk you all the way in down to the landing there do you have any experience in the King Air I number Five's out the whisk you're doing a real good job there's nothing out to the west except water nothing out there but the Gulf of Mexico and I'm thinking I don't know why they're bringing me way out here I mean they're either getting me out of everybody else's way or getting everybody out of my way one another number nine or Delta whiskey just concentrate on flying the plane Rula looks like you're just about established on that heading now you're approaching that one 1,000 as you get to about one 1,500 you want to start easing out just a little bit on that yoke to level off that plane and now if you can it's going to be one three two point zero seven so she's given me the radio frequency for Fort Myers but I've got about four sets of radios looking at me there and I don't know which ones navcom two on six whatever it is this is not my little Bendix Cessna radios I said how do I switch frequency so I push his green toukyo buttons because I did not want to lose her on that radio because that radio was my lifeline we had bonded at that point he was trusting me and listening to me we were both very calm together so I stayed on and monitored that frequency until we knew that he had landed safely just in case at any time you wanted to switch back I wanted to make sure like hold on I'll be right here so what I'm going to do number 5 Delta whiskey is contact Fort Myers approach one three two point zero seven by pushing two if you have if you do not get them just switch it again and you'll be talking to me I pushed the button and we got over to Fort Myers approach and I rang him up or I checked in and got ahold of Brian Norton the end of my ship actually walking out of the TRACON provider came out to catch me and said we had an emergency inbound from Miami Center and that the pilot wanted to talk to a controller with a pilot's luck and then I was getting a handoff from Miami center that's when I realized it was a king air which I don't know a whole heck of a lot about we fly Cessnas and Cherokee stock didn't how much help I was going to be and of every minor delta whiskey are using the autopilot or you fly an airplane made a good lord hands line is not a revolution king air 9 delta whiskey when you're ready turn a left heading 180 row we start working you towards the airport whenever you're ready to turn fly heading one eight zero one eight zero to five thousand for $9 whiskey I need to slow us Anton down that's 45 honor the fleet permit me I need to get my throttle set with this set I don't Lord of set of that okay so we'll get some information if you just return it just a little bit and I'll get you an answer on that if you want to start the descent that's fine too I was given information on how to get to the airport and a controller sitting next to me to cell phone and calling an old flight instructor up in Danbury Connecticut that had a lot of king air time and he was desperately trying to get him on the phone you got lucky because I didn't have many intelligent things to say to the pilot all of a sudden with Dan favio the other controller got his flight instructor Kerry Sorensen on the telephone and he happened to be sitting in his office on a Sunday morning with his briefcase had had a King Air Tech list in it I would ask questions they were just session one sent me two questions but I didn't know any other type to ask I figure an airplane was an airplane I didn't even look at the rest those gauges over there not looked like the Space Shuttle to me every time I would ask Brian want these questions he would ask his buddy sitting beside him his buddy would ask the question in the cell phone to his pilot friend in Connecticut he would give him the answer come back to the telephone he would tell Brian Brian would tell me $9 whiskey D on the information I'm getting now is to leave the props and the power were chat and just fly like you normally would a single-engine for now $9 whiskey how many souls on board and $90 whiskey to beer only six it's a 12,000 foot runways you're going to plenty of runway to work with we got equipment standing by and it's all yours I think I see a runway 12 o'clock and about a mile on another whiskey $9.00 whiskey that's correct you're looking at the right runway that's runway 6 at International $9.00 whiskey the last instruction I got when you get to 150 knots the flap control will say approach flats on I just select that detent when you get 250 knots you're right on the money you're lined up for the runway so altitude your discretion you can proceed visually and just let me know when you have the gear in the flats down all right gear gold a and 9 devil whiskey you are clear to random on so I cleared to land runway 6 a lot sucks now if I our thoughts ma'am I just killed a shuttle for what that's correct when you touch down slowly kill the throttle let's approach speed file approach speed again to the threshold if we're in just a moment sir your present speeds good I'll have a final approach speed in just a second and 9 Delta whiskey I make your final approach speed 120 knots indicated on time not at all this pieces whole thing how there you got one bullet indicated got that five tips that night 9 Delta whiskey I believe you got one more detail left on the flat so when you get to 120 it'll be full flats 120 and then at that point no slower than 110 no flaps others only no slower modern piano whiskey $9.00 whiskey more information for you is just easy with the tires you get close to the runway to keep the nose up keep the power on it but easy in and out with the power the very responses you'll get a lot of response out of it full blast right I don't always do want to ami indicated 9 della whisk you it looks good from here good job burning up loading action it's not a little Ricky set it down never seen too many fire trucks in the life course not to this day I know a lot of divine intervention on divine help up there but if things sit down like a butterfly with sore feet and I got off active and I'm surrounded by the Calvary EMTs and fire trucks and please and I can't turn the engines off I'm thinking we just went through what we just went through it I'm going to cut somebody in half because I don't know how to kill engine anyway there's an airline pilot or copilot sitting in sittin injector at RSW who had a lot of king air time and he volunteered and helped me and so they opened the back door girls got off the EMTs got Joe out and worked on him put him on a gurney and worked on him for half an hour right there on the runway by the plane but he was already gone I was thinking about flying this airplane keeping us keeping this thing right-side up that's the only thing I was focused on I was in some kind of a zone I can't explain I mean I was nervous I was scared but I was focused you know like in a tone I declared the emergency I knew that would move me to the head of the line be proactive rather than reactive and you'll really exponentially increase your chances of staying out of trouble no matter what playing you're flying don't let it get in front of you you stay out front of it mentally that's all you

Channel: Air Safety Institute

Views: 256,379

Keywords: air, safety, institute, aopa, airplane, plane, emergency, landing, 172, beechcraft, king, doug, white, pilot, analysis, interview, faa, pinch, hitting, hitter, student, training, pic, cessna, king air, real, story, accident, takeoff, post, pinch hit, atc, radio, comms, c172, ntsb, asi, clearence, climb, descend, declare, 599dw, n599dw, passenger, pax, copilot, co-pilot, yoke, controls, take, over

Id: ag1-7qnkjv0

Length: 17min 0sec (1020 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 13 2016