Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk, G-BODP, 16 August 2012
Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk, G-BODP
Summary:
The instructor and student were conducting PPL training for slow flight aircraft handling. At an estimated height of between 2,000 and 3,000 ft, the aircraft turned rapidly through about 180° and descended at a high rate, crashing in a field. The evidence indicated that the aircraft had been in a spin to the left when it struck the surface. Both occupants were fatally injured.
A manufacturer’s revision to the Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH), dated May 2012, included advice on the altitudes at which slow flight and stall manoeuvres should be initiated, to provide an adequate margin of safety in the event of an inadvertent spin. This revision, which related to a Safety Recommendation made by the United States of America’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in 1997, reached the flying school in the month following the accident.
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