Flight Training - April 2015 - 26

ACCIDENT REPORT

Dan Namowitz
SECTIONAL charts are updated
every six months; each has an
effective date and an expiration date.

HIGH ENOUGH TO HURT

HAVE YOU REALLY LOOKED AT YOUR SECTIONAL LATELY?

ery little changes year to year across the landscape of eastern
Maine. The pilots who ply these serene skies can tell you that
maintaining 2,000 feet is enough to keep you out of trouble
almost everywhere in this area. If you're headed west toward
Bangor and the ceiling starts to come down, pilots pick up the power
line just south of the remote Deblois airport, and follow it to their destination. But changes come more quickly than they used to-even here.
The nation is on a quest for diversification of its energy sources, and it
has turned to numerous technologies-
including wind turbines, which raise the
obstruction profile of the usually high
terrain on which they are placed.
Not high enough in all cases-as the
sectional-chart quadrangle between
Deblois and Bangor illustrates-to raise
the maximum elevation figure such as
the one printed north of Spectacle Pond,
from "1.8" (representing 1,800 feet msl to
ensure clearing the quadrangle's highest
known feature).
But a pilot who compares a current sectional chart's depiction of that quadrangle
to an older version now finds south and
east of that body of water, and straddling
the power line pilots follow, a network
of wind turbines that each rise 476 feet
above the terrain, resulting in a variety of
msl values to 1,087 feet. Other hills and
ridges in the region also bear the structures, which now have their own specific
symbol on aeronautical charts.
If it has been a while since you scanned
the charts of your long-familiar home
flying area for new obstructions, be sure
to do so now that the spring flying season
is approaching. Then add some margin to
your personal minimum VFR altitudes.
On April 27, 2014, a fatal accident that
occurred near Highmore, South Dakota,
claimed all four occupants of a Piper PA32R-300 when the aircraft struck a wind
turbine late on a day marked by fog and
rainshowers.
By early 2015, no probable cause finding
had been published by the National Transportation Safety Board for the accident,

26 /

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

which occurred on a return flight from
Hereford, Texas, to Gettysburg, South
Dakota. A preliminary accident summary
noted that "the wreckage of the airplane
was scattered in a radius surrounding the
base of a wind turbine. The airplane was
fragmented. One turbine blade exhibited impact damage and was broken into
several large pieces, several of which
remained attached to the turbine nacelle.
The remaining two turbine blades exhibited impact damage."
The NTSB noted weather observed 37
miles away at Pierre Regional Airport at
2124Z as "wind 010 degrees at 19 knots,
visibility 10 miles, sky condition broken
clouds at 1,000 feet, overcast at 1,600 feet,
temperature 6 degrees Celsius (C), dew
point temperature 5 degrees C, altimeter
29.37 inches; remarks, ceiling variable
between 800 and 1,200 feet."
A local newspaper reported that "the
wreckage was found at the South Dakota
Wind Energy Center, a group of wind
turbines, all approximately 300 feet
tall, placed on several parcels of private
property." The group of obstructions is
depicted on the Omaha sectional chart,
topping out at 2,515 feet msl in a quadAir Safety Institute Online Course:
Know Before You Go
It's critical to be well-versed on any
type of airspace that lies in your path.
Know Before You Go: Navigating Today's
Airspace is just one of ASI's many
online courses designed to keep you
safe in the sky you fly (www.aopa.org/
Education/Online).

rangle with an MEF of "2.7" or 2,700
feet-just south of a Victor airway.
When thinking about obstructions,
also keep in mind a unique hazard of the
smaller, less regulated obstacles that may
precede the appearance of wind turbines
on a site. These are the so-called meteorological evaluation towers (METs) that
may come and go more quickly than a
six-month sectional chart cycle, leaving
you to spot them for the first time in the
windscreen of your moving aircraft. METs
are used to assess a site's potential for
wind turbine installations-and following
several mishaps, they have come in for
special notice at the NTSB.
In March 2011, the NTSB issued a
Safety Alert on METs, "many of which fall
just below the 200-foot Federal Aviation
Administration threshold for obstruction markings, can be difficult to see from
the air, and can be a danger to aircraft
conducting low-flight operations-including helicopter emergency services, law
enforcement, fire suppression and other
low-altitude activities.
"Pilots are urged to maintain vigilance
during low-altitude flights and are asked
to encourage the markings of METs in
their area," the NTSB said.
Because METs come in below the
height of structures the FAA requires to
be marked, the task has fallen to states
to take action requiring that METs be
painted or marked and included in staterun databases of obstructions. AOPA
strongly supports state legislative efforts
to pass such laws for safety of flight.
For pilots, the obstruction-hazard
issue's wide sweep stands as a reminder
to check the charts for changes, add a
safety margin, and watch out for any new
obstructions that are too low to be published, but high enough to hurt.
Dan Namowitz is an aviation writer and flight
instructor. He has been a pilot since 1985 and
an instructor since 1990.

http://www.aopa.org/Education/Online http://www.aopa.org/Education/Online http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - April 2015