Hey Ed - How Close is This Story to Right?

[pdub]

Okay.....gust lock. I can see that, freeze the control surfaces on the ground.

But does it actually limit the throttle as well? The throttle's not gonna help with takeoff anyhow if the control surfaces are frozen in place....

[oletrux4evr]

I believe that story is exactly right, but I didn't realize the gust lock included the throttles on a Gulfstream. A flight control lock does just that; locks the flight controls, but they typically do not include throttles or secondary flight controls, such as flaps or spoilers. There must be some additional part of the system that was either over-ridden, or failed if the throttles were supposed to be restricted. There again, that must be a Gulfstream-specific system. I don't know why the brakes would be disabled......that is totally out of place, to me. Maybe I should read the report again.........

EDIT: Here's another link. Yes, the system does restrict the throttles.

http://aviationweek.com/business-aviation/investigators-analyze-giv-controls-gust-lock-hanscom-crash

Another link to a light-hearted training article:

http://code7700.com/g450_gust_lock.html

[Barry Donovan]

no preflight.
asking for trouble.

The military approach.. stianding on the wet english runway getting lit through the steel plate in the foot and the microphone ignoring the 1 million pound 747 parked nearby throwing a breeze to taxi...

preflight will get done.

[Loren]

Knowing nothing about it I'd still think that any system designed to prevent control surface movement so things didn't bang around in wind gusts while parked, would also interfere with throttle movement just as a safety feature...it'd take, what...one more simple mechanism? So a part of these guy's plane wasn't working, yet they're still flying passengers around and not doing pre-flight checks. It does look like the brakes were working...

Skid marks were found on the final 2,300 ft. of runway and overrun area,

I guess at that point they needed a parachute. R.i.p., all.

[pdub]

Wow Ed that's a lot of interesting reading and more clicks to click on. It seems the gust lock was found not engaged by the pilots' controls, but...

"Extensive post-accident examination of the pedestal components — levers, cams, cables, sheaves, push rods, bell cranks, etc. — turned up several items that could have prevented normal operation of the gust locks components. These included a broken shear pin and a pair of sunglasses adrift among the assemblies. Whether and how these anomalies might have affected the operation of the gust lock had not been determined at this writing."

[Loren]

Hmm.

[oletrux4evr]

Really too bad. Like most accidents, looks like this one could have been prevented.

[pdub]

Really too bad. Like most accidents, looks like this one could have been prevented.

Yep. As soon as I read that news story, I smelled a fish. Something's wrong. Something's wrong with the reporting, as always, every time.

Ed, thanks so much for those links. Folks, follow Ed's links and then dig deeper at the bottom of the pages, more clicks, you can see where those guys flying that plane had many thousands of hours of flight time. And they were more than familiar with that particular plane. And see how many times they checked control surface movement before takeoff, not every one every time for sure. Like driving a car, just get in it and drive it. We don't check the tire pressures every day before we go to the store.

But obviously an airplane is different, and it is. The news story blamed the pilots for the accident, and I guess you can. But the news story had them goofing the gust lock thing, a Forrest Gump thing, and by the reports from the investigation, that's not how it happened. Never believe what you are fed from the media, it's not right 100% of the time. I'll bid 10% for accuracy and that's being generous.