A sad accident happened with an aircraft based at Lognes airport happened yesterday, I looked at FR24, aircraft is DR400 flew Lognes to LeTouquet at 1500ft amsl before it suddenly crashed, the trace looked puzzling on sunny day, but reading press articles it looked like regulatory or airwothiness limitation, I doubt it’s ModeS thingy from FR24 traces, anyone knows about this “max 1500ft amsl” in France? is it agl or amsl?
I flew similar aircrat while being underpowered they have good load capability and could take 4pob at 80kg on +2h trips, empty near 575kg – max 1000kg – and 100L (72 kg), but I doubt low level stalls in that config is a good thing
Personally, I never felt easy with stick forces & nose pitch during power off flare or go-around in heavy loaded DR400 with 4pob & 6 bags & 2h fuel, I know one should just fly attitude and beleive their weight & balance numbers and disregard stick force impressions but my gut feeling tells me I was far in the load enveloppe, while being 100% legal not sure one should be there? I usually went for “the warrior push forward” on the stick* as things slow down on heavy weight, just a disclaimer: I don’t have much time logged on the types just the personal impression & superstition…
*I knwo some instructors don’t appreciate the all the way to the stop (maybe comes from too much practice in winch cable breaks), but I doubt anyone did hit the ground with full power & stick fully forward unless they are past +75kts with -50deg pitch !
What max 1500ft? Mode S is not required for VFR but most club aircraft have mode C.
Lognes being in the suburbs of Paris does have some difficult airspace to contend with.
Have not yet read the accident report.
gallois wrote:
What max 1500ft?
From the press, “Selon les premiers éléments transmis à l’Agence France-Presse par l’aérodrome de Lognes-Émerainville, « il s’agissait d’un vol d’instruction ». L’avion de tourisme accidenté est « de fabrication française, limitée légalement aux « vols à vue », pas plus de 1 500 pieds d’altitude, soit 500 mètres », a indiqué l’aérodrome”
The aircraft is legally restricted to VFR not above 1500ft amsl, WTF???!!
Maybe it’s the base of airspace…
@Ibra The articles suggest a take-off from Bauvais to Lognes. Looking at the map, the TMA is Class D/A at 1500ft for most of that flight. You cant enter Class A VFR and I know from experience many French aeroclub pilots avoid controlled airspace if they possibly can anyway – Perhaps (not for the first time) the press are confused?
Regards, SD..
Edit : one article says 15000ft, the other 1500ft, both say 500m…
(ISTR DR400 ceiling is 15000ft?)
make sense, yes not the first time from a sloppy journalist
Having now read those artlicled I think it will be better to wait for the BEA report before commenting.
I can only assume that they are trying to say that it was a flight under instruction , that the VFR part is reference to the aircraft only being equipped for VFR and the 1500 ft might be down to the airspace in that area. So nothing unusual except that the reporters haven’t a clue.
Never had any problems with landing a Robin, fully laden, never found any unusual about the stick forces.
I doubt very much if the more reported nose wheel issue played a role in this accident.
Yes better wait to see a report, just my wild guess, I never dared to stall a Robin for practice at height with 4pob at MTOW, so I can’t say much in that regards (actually, I never tried that in any GA aircraft, except in a fully loaded C182 with 4 bored pilots)
The aircraft was DR400 160hp (140B) F-GNNE.
It belonged to the Paris Airports (company operating most Paris airports and airfields) flying club.
Everybody is stuck below 1500ft AMSL over there which is crazy but we don’t have a choice.
Curious to have 4 POB (all deceased unfortunately) on an instruction flight to Beauvais.
May them rest in peace, and us understand what happened.
unless this is really bad reporting there may be a clue in this. According to the fire brigade a very strong odour of Kerosene could be smelt…
La section de recherche de la gendarmerie s’est rendue sur les lieux de l’accident où, selon les pompiers, une forte odeur de kérosène a été détectée.
Obviously we’re speculating again as this might be the usual bad reporting…
https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/entreprises/transports/seine-et-marne-au-moins-quatre-morts-dans-un-accident-d-avion-de-tourisme_AN-202104180169.html
