72-Year-Old Joyriding in a Cessna Citation 

"Heading Hold" is your best friend. Heading hold takes away so much pressure from the pilot. If you trim correctly, Alt can take care of itself for a few minutes or more but heading is a constant workload. I remember being in the sim to do my MCC, the guy with me have been flying single commercial for a couple of years and was way in front of me. We practices a decompression in a 737. The bell went off, mask on and I turned right descended, bla, bla, bla. Sweat rolling off of me and behind the curve all the way down. Then it was his turn, the bell went off, mask on and he rolled right, descended and then he hit the heading hold, ("bstard") he trimmed for a descent and we went through the check list as if nothing was a problem. When you are new, never feel the autopilot is cheating, it's not, it's just a friend helping out.

Sounded like he was hammered on radio

I would describe the pilot as “uncoachable.” Glad he didn’t auger in over a populated area,

Once again a very well done video. I’m a retired airline pilot and I fly with two 74 year old pilot owners in a Falcon 900 and a Kingair 200. Based on my experience, I don’t believe this air tragedy was a result of age, but rather just general incompetence.

my money is on a stroke given the slurred speech pattern prior to and immediately after take off.

I'm almost 71, and haven't flown since 2010 due to cardiac stents. A couple months went by and I thought maybe I'd give it a shot if the invasive camera routine would show everything was ok. I felt great, but then I thought maybe I should get some kind of test. I did a cognitive test. And failed.

I'm 71. I surrendered my certificate many years ago due to medical reasons. I remember when we had to stop my Mother from driving though. She had passed a line of cars and ran a Sheriff off the road coming the other way. He spun around and gave her a ticket, and recommended a driver review. She did it, and passed. My wife road with her and said she was dangerous. That was it, I put a wheel lock on the steering wheel. She didn't take it well. After that she went downhill fast with alzheimers. Assisted living, locked nursing care, and passing away in less than 5 years. I could still fly about any GA airplane, but I won't. I feel really bad for that Citation pilot. I wish someone had put a lock on his yoke. There was opportunity. --gary

Excellent report! Very well done!

You write like Raymond Chandler. I love it.

I recall when this happened. Thank you for providing the detailed back-story.

Good video, looking forward to the next one. Love the script and the witty commentary

Many elderly pilots tote a local passenger who is in unqualified, but reasonably capable of taking over. This dude was daffy all the way.

I love your work, refreshingly punchy with your style of narrative & analysis of the facts. Please keep it up. Cheers.--

Superb. I love your presentation. More, please.

While tragic, there is at least solace in knowing he died while doing something he was truly passionate about. Most of us do not have that luxury.

Thanks for sharing another great video 🙏

Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing this.

Great video man…well done.

NTSB: Pilot Incapacitated Before Fatal Citation V Crash by Chad Trautvetter - August 15, 2022, 12:59 PM The sole-occupant pilot that died in the crash of Cessna Citation V N3RB on Jan. 9, 2021, near Warm Springs, Oregon, lost control of the twinjet after becoming incapacitated for reasons that could not be determined, according to an NTSB probable cause report published on Friday. An NTSB investigation determined that N3RB did not appear to have any mechanical issues when it was destroyed after hitting the ground at 1:37 p.m. PST. During the first 15 minutes of the flight, the 72-year-old pilot who had 12,350 hours TT but not a Citation V type rating, appeared to have difficulty maintaining assigned headings and altitudes. After reaching FL270, the airplane began to deviate about 30 degrees right of course while continuing to climb. The controller alerted the pilot, who did not respond, and the airplane continued to climb. Two minutes later, the airplane entered a spiraling descent that lasted eight minutes until the airplane hit the ground at high speed in a right-wing-low attitude. According to the NTSB, a review of the pilot’s medical history uncovered several conditions and medications unreported to the FAA. While these conditions or medications would not have directly caused incapacitation, the pilot may have had an undiagnosed disease or had some acute event that would have incapacitated him, the NTSB said, noting that the available evidence is consistent with a loss of airplane control following pilot incapacitation.

Just got back from the high school track, doing my alternating days jogging and sprinting. I can do the mile in around 7.5. Went back to school a few years ago (2007 to 2011) for molecular Biology; g.p.a. came in just north of 4.1. I moved to a landlocked rural area couple of years ago, so I picked up a Piper Lance to get around. I'm a retired air carrier pilot. Couple of years ago I was debating a major purchase. Friend of mine said, "You can't take it with you.". My reply..."If I can't take it with me, I'm not going !". I'm 72.

You have gained a new subscriber. Excellent video!

Interesting story and the camera shots are great!

Excellent as usual.

Sincerely look forward to your videos

This presentation method is perfect for ADHD people, I pray the algorithm gods take this channel as far as it deserves

Quoting Solomon. Love it

His garbled speech right before take off and early in the flight sort of indicate a stroke.

I never heard of this, at first I thought it was about this other Citation crash near Sweden which became a ghost plane and spiraled into the Baltic Sea last year

Tough to feel sorry for people like this.

My guess is Hypoxia and he didnt have autopilot on. The end.

At least he died doing what he loves. We should all be so lucky!

I don't care if your take is correct or Dan G. is correct or something else completely, your topics, narration, writing and overall production is top notch! Regardless the truth, we'll never know, the information is sound and educational.

There is more to this story than is here... Some people at this point in their lives don't care about the rules any longer. I believe that this is the case in this accident. Had he not been able to get his oxygen mask on in time would explain everything. It does not appear a suicide.

I fly a Cessna Citation V Ultra. It is a complex aircraft, and if not planned can be a handful. It is also very predictable and a joy to fly. Sad for this gentleman, but again sounds like a very poor decision by this overconfident man. Good analysis

I was in the air this day and experienced it first hand. I would have come to boise for a hamburger. The problem here is what honest pilots have and that is a guilt complex. He's doing something he knows he shouldn't so therefore he's overwhelmed. Anxiety takes hold and any abnormal will put you over the edge.

This is just a simple flight by a pro. I don't know why he wouldn't invite someone along with him, but he didn't, and that's what caused this death. Any seasoned airline pilot would be able to handle the five sixty with no problem. Do not try this at home.

The pilot seemed confused and his speech was a little slurred. In addition to competency difficulties, he may have been having a stroke.

Regardless of the details of the accident - really makes you think about passion being exactly the wrong reason to fly. Safe flight is boring, repetitive, and uninspired. A lot of issues in aviation (including the fact that the entire industry is upside down with 300-hour pilots teaching others to fly and ratings costing in excess of 100k with a 30k starting salary) appear to be rooted in the fact that people fly out of passion rather than due to reasonable choices. Something to think about.

Very sad tale

For a process that involves extreme forces, skill and the importance of communication ,air traffic controllers and pilots speak way too fast. They think they are in some rushed military operation. Speaking so fast is totally ridiculous and dangerous. Calmness and awareness does not require fast talking and in fact interferes with them. People in that field think they are something special. They are not. They are simply operating machines.

Anti AP in a complicated aircraft is a flawed philosophy - Knowing how to use an AP without dependency of it - should be the goal

Quite a fine report I say.

I can almost hear Ozzy singing in the background.🤔🎸

It is possible he had heart issues, ie. bad circulation in major arteries. Was he overweight? The reason is that at high altitudes, even with adequate oxygen, if your oxygen to blood content is low, it will not feed your brain (or body) accurately. He could have been borderline (at best) or not current in his medical. Or he was simply intoxicated; it sure sounded that way from his communications (and lacks thereof).

The 1970's movie Airport 75 depicted an older pilot having a heart attack in a small twin engine plane before slamming into the front of a fully loaded 747 Jumbo.

The CJ shown is not a 560

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. But there are no old, bold pilots.

Was this Rick Boehlke accident?

Dan Grider, of the Probable Cause RU-vid channel made a video about this incident that was taken down. The pilot of this airplane was a life-long con artist who committed suicide.

It’s my jet and I’m gonna fly it when and the way I want! Instead of a breathalyzer interlock, install a common sense cut-out.

7:09 I thought he said “with foxtrot” in the taxi request

Sisyphus lol

This is basically if our president were to try and fly a plane

Some suggestions: explaining terms like phugoid cycle, closed captioning for the garbled radio communications, and I'm not sure if the references to Mount Hood are relevant since it didn't feature in the final descent. Perhaps he wanted to fly near it for viewing reasons. I agree hubris is at the root of this accident. The pilot sounds like yet another billionaire in the mold of Stockton Rush (or Elon Musk for that matter) who believe that normal rules shouldn't and don't apply to them, even rules determined by science and reason.

First off, you cannot joyride in a vehicle that you own. Secondly, all citation jets (CJ Series) including the CJ four are single pilot. Otherwise, it was an excellent video. The pilot sounds sedated from the get go. So a stroke, progressive in nature, is a possibility. Chest pain would have proceeded a heart attack and likely would have given the pilot time to call out his Maydays.

Hecky could have got a g 3 4 much less than this. Put a new package in it and off he goes. Why not taking instructor heaven's sakes. They need to eat too. Lunch time.😊

A Citation C560 V is not a C525 CitationJet nor is it a C525C CJ4 shown in your video.

Try telling my cognitive bias that :)

Did they ever consider suicide as a possibility?

The worst kind of fool is an old fool.

Or maybe it was a sudden uncontrolled bowel movement.

You kind of missed it on this one...

I'm surprised the guy didn't Darwin himself earlier.