N451MA PA-46-350 16 Apr 2024 Structural Failure 

I worked with some Piper guys years ago and they were complaining about the Malibu crashes that were happening. Seems that the owners basically said "I paid a million dollars for an all-weather aircraft and by God I'm going to fly it through thunderstorms" which is what caused the vast majority of the accidents. NOBODY in their right mind fly's ANYTHING through a thunderstorm! Another guy testified in a crash suit where the elevator had come off much like what was shown in this video. He did a demonstration that the elevator and controls could withstand 6 times the maximum load before failure...but in closing arguments the prosecutor said 'You SAW how the tail FAILED'!! And the jury found Piper guilty and gave the plaintiffs a big award. Lay people don't seem to understand that things are built with limits and you MUST stay below them even though what is advertised in the Pilot Manual will have some headroom...don't push it!

There are just weather conditions where staying at home and watching Columbo reruns is the best decision you can possibly make.

Incredible lesson. You young pilots need to watch and re-watch every video Juan produces. It will keep you alive. I was USAF trained and had a long professional career but still learn something in every video.

I tried flying in the 80s. Instructor was a crop duster. He signed me off on solo at 6 hours. He was impressed at how quickly I was picking up overall handling of the aircraft in the pattern and basic maneuvers. While soloing, I was showing off for friends and had two low altitude accelerated stalls and in both instances a couple weeks apart, they involved counter-intuitively diving the nose at the ground to gain airspeed and was able to pull out just feet above impact. I know it was stupid. I almost paid the ultimate price - *TWICE!* It was at that time, I realized I wasn't mature enough to attempt to continue flying and quit just before my scheduled written exam. I got married, raised a nice family and my wife an I enjoyed our careers til we both retired recently. Instead of thinking I should buy a plane now and try again - I bought Flight Sim for my computer and some controls and that will have to be the limit for my flying adventures, lol!

As a retired VFR pilot, and experiencing “situations” in my 3300 hours I was always aware of the maximum manoeuvring speed of the limited number of aircraft and aircraft types that I flew, however I did not realize that the lighter my plane was the manoeuvring speed decreased. I would have bet my house that the reverse was true but the graph proves otherwise. I never saw one of those graphs ( or studied it if I did actually one). Thanks for the education and I hope I can pass it on and help someone else.

I am a longtime meteorologist, corporate pilot, and active CFI. It is incredibly frustrating when weather is often the cause of so many GA accidents. We have better data than ever. In many cases, I think some pilots do not know what they don’t know. Your dissection of accidents is a good learning tool. I think pilots needs to pursue as much advanced weather training as possible - books, seminars, webinars, etc.

My family's Malibu and pilot are somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Bahamas. Pilot flew into a Level 6 thunderstorm. A/C was equipped with a color Storm Scope. I'm not sure what he was thinking. A small GA aircraft is still a small GA aircraft, no matter how fancy and fast it is. They're fragile beasts. ALL weather should be avoided in them, no matter the marketing department's claims. This includes ice.

Hi Juan! I found this report fascinating. I spent ten years at Piper, eight of those on the PA-46 line and about two years installing the empennage. The main wing on this plane failed at the "splice" where the outer panels are joined to the center section. The separated portion of the empennage shown on the ground is the elevator trim tab and, roughly, one third of the elevator. Good reports. Keep up the good work.

RIP to the pilot. Thank you for explaining this tragedy so others can learn from it.

Many years ago I had a pristine 1982 Airconditioned and de-iced P-210. I test flew a New 1984 Malibu on an early clear Saturday morning - no wind and was smitten. At the time I had about 2,000 hours. I ended up purchasing a used 50 hour Malibu for $250K with fresh everything forward of the firewall (Piper was forced to replace engines), essentially a new plane. When I went to Wisconsin to pick up the plane it was gusty winds but clear weather. I quickly discovered that I gave up a perfectly good extremely stable P-210 almost paid off for a large mortgage on a Malibu as I had the crap beat out of me as those long wings picked up every bump in the sky reminding more more of the turbulence one feels flying a Cessna 152 in training. The next 600 hours of Malibu time was at times scary as the Autopilot would disengage in heavy turbulence, and I avoided any hint of bad weather. I flew quite often. After about 600 hours I became more 'one with the plane' and was more comfortable flying approaches to near minimums and as always avoided extreme areas of weather, but braved it a bit more. I became actually pretty good with the plane and would not hesitate to buy another, but it's a plane that will kill you quickly to pilots with less fear than me.

The simple explanation of the problem of the autopilot trying to keep up with turbulence is pure gold.

I am a 600hr non active commercial pilot who still loves to hear you break down into detail like you do!!! Flight instructors need to hammer this stuff into their students!!!

Juan is always on point, accurate, knowledgeable and respectful with his analyses.

As a low time pilot flying a complex single engine “slippery” airframe this makes the hair on my neck stand. Very humbling and insightful

We have a new pilot, learnt recent Pa28, daddy bought him Saratoga, barely flies it. So called checked out, didn't know of the centre fuel drain behind the P2 seat. Been told they are buying Malibu. I shake my head, madness

As the owner/pilot of a PA32, your explanation of the incident was spot on and I have been in situations like this. It's very easy to try to let the autopilot to continue to fly the airplane, but you need to let the airplane adjust to the turbulence. I think that even non-pilots would understand your explanation of Va speeds, etc. Great job as always.

I was flying my 172-B from KPWA back to KDWH when a summer Supercell had just blown through. It was clear VFR about the time I hit the Red River and the vis was 40 miles. I started getting bumped really hard and slowed down to Va, I was busy keeping the wings level when Ft Worth Center asked me if I needed higher because I was several thousand feet above my assigned altitude. Keeping the inputs at a minimum had caused me to ride the Verga almost to service ceiling within a couple of minutes.

Seems to be a string of fatal air crashes involving the autopilot systems allowing the aircraft to get into uncontrollable or excessive flying conditions. It seems like the pilots are not prepared to 'fly the aircraft' bucking bronco style in weather or known icing conditions. You wonder if the flying instructions related to autopilot are fully understood. There must be a mentality that to get out of trouble you turn autopilot on, when turning it off is how to gain real control again.

Juan, "why would you want to take your new airplane right through a weather front"? I've been asking myself that same question since 9/30/1966 when a great friend of mine picked up an ex high school sweetheart of mine and tried to fly back to College Station through a weather front. Flew it into the trees upside down. Getting somewhere has never been that important to me as it seems to be to others. Deepest condolences to family, loved ones and friends.

What's that old saw.. "an exceptional pilot uses his exceptional decision making to avoid using his exceptional piloting skills". Or the other old saw.. "the takeoff is optional, the landing is mandatory". I would think twice about flying in a weather system like that. Double that for night IFR, mountainous terrain, and icing. You need to add those factors up and throw in the towel, stay at the local hotel and wake up to fly another day.

So many high performance cars crashed by those without the experience,talent and training to control them. I guess it's the same with aircraft ?

As a non-pilot still interested in aviation I find the comments enormously interesting.

Never flew a Malibu but I've heard they are very "slippery." I was in the TRACON one day when we handed one off to a local tower on a visual approach. ATC had to send him around and he crashed on the go around. To be blunt, I see low-time pilots with a lot of money killing themselves. The guy that crashed at my facility was a surgeon and a low-time pilot.

I think that was your best explanation of maneuvering speed and how the weather can effect it. The bit about over correcting on the controls and wildly moving them back and forth and how that to can get you past maneuvering speed was also explained really well. If you ever do a top ten video list, this one definitely needs to be on it.

I live about 40 miles away from this accident and I can tell you the winds were massive that day. It must have been a really terrible ride at altitude.

Our maintenance facility did an AE2A engine for a Malibu, and while i was doing the installation, the wealthy owner/pilot wasboasting about how good his avionic suite was, and how fast the aurplane was, and it was truly all weather capable. It struck me how these idiots think their money makes them invincible.

Having been a test engineer on several of the development RR Trent engines, we had to perform static ground cross-wind tests, but only up to 40-45 knots. Simply because you wouldn't want to takeoff or land at that cross-wind speed or above. Let alone be a small engine aircraft in a storm front. Moral of that story is, plan and don't ever push the boundaries.

Two points I'd like to make here. This airplane was equipped with onboard weather radar. Did the pilot ever take any training on radar theory and limitations, or on using the particular unit installed in the aircraft? Second, there seems to be a widespread belief that datalinked weather uplinked to an aircraft is the best thing since sliced bread. Folks, speaking as a CFI and professional pilot, all these things give you is information. It's up to you through training and knowledge, specially of the equipment's and your own limitations to interpret it properly and put it to proper use.

Thanks for the reminders as always. I find myself with the autopilot off 80% of the time due to weather, Mtns etc. I was coming back from Santa Fe to Tucson in my 310 a couple of weeks ago and it was a bull-ride...Full shoulder strap, spine rattling hits etc. I looked at flight aware and I had several 100mph spikes...altitude drops were up to several hundred feet. Va baby. My excellent instructor drilled it into me years ago.

Misuse of an autopilot seems to be a common theme in a number of fatal GA loss of control incidents lately.

I searched all 695 comments (at the time of this one) and despite several instances of "tornado," none consider the fact that the aircraft might have entered one. He was on the S side of a small, rapidly building cell, and if you watch Ryan Hall's livestreams, you know that on Tuesday, tornadoes a) had already been reported by the 12:05 (CDT, 1:05 EDT) start time of his stream, and b) formed from some of the smaller cells out in front of the main convection (supercells). I haven't had time to see if any tornadoes were reported in the area that day, but it often takes minutes for rotation to be recognized as sufficient to be causing at least a tornado aloft. Also, it takes many minutes for a circulation that's invisible in the clouds to reach the ground and generate a TDS (tornado damage signature). Aircraft encountering a tornado aloft is the first thing that occurred to be b/c of the high _ground_ speed (not airspeed) achieved with little or no loss of altitude. What can accelerate your aircraft by 70 knots in 17 seconds? Not an up or downdraft, for sure! The counterclockwise pattern of the last 3 FlightAware hits also makes me think "tornado aloft."

What to say to: "Accept a block of altitude" at 9:57. When I went all seats occupied and full fuel through a cold front, after (1) asking if ATC could suggest vector through lighter part of the front, which amazingly they could do without me having to switch frequency to talk to weather service, and (2) Slowing to Va max. and although you pilots know this but it's so rare you might not have the calls at the tip of your tongue, so here ya go: (3) "Unable maintain altitude because of turbulence and heavy weight." (4) "Request block altitude." And ATC immediately gave me a max and min altitude. Presumably they then got anybody out of my way that they needed to. Worked perfectly, no problem.

Juan, " . . . this is a slippery, single engine aircraft and it's a problem with owner-operators exceeding the design limitations of the aircraft, especially in bad weather." Reminds me of exactly the issue with the V-Tail Bonanza. Many, many v-tails structurally failed due to over-G the airplane while operating in the caution range or beyond. Hence, the v-tail received the moniker, Dr. Killer.

I flew a 172 into a line of thunderstorms and I did my best to stay at or below Va and gave up on trying to maintain altitude. I saw rate of climb beyond the ROC gauge both climb and decent. We got slapped hard enough to set off the ELT while making a 180 degree turn to get out. That made radio comms with Center impossible. I set the transponder to 7600 hit ident then to 7700. We landed at the nearest airport to wait out the weather and turn off the ELT. Got to fly very carefully to stay in one piece!! Helps to have good skills too. ERAU 80 CFIA&I ret.

Juan does a good analysis. I've flown a PA32 for just under 4000 hours in a country that doesn't have weather available by satellite and ATC that won't and say they can't advise on weather. Many times I have struck mountain wave, frontal and convective systems....both VFR and IFR. I have hauled the airspeed back to 90 and never exceed 100kt when it's severe. In my case I do disagree with Juan on AP use. My century 2000 was very docile, lagged and it worked so well in turbulence. I knew I had it right when the stall warning was going off occasionally. Swarf from previous avionics install would be found on the floor under the panel. Juan is correct. You've just got to ride it. I tell myself, go gently, throttle back, watch airspeed and don't pull and listen for the occasional stall warning. When that happens I'm confident I won't pull the wings off. I have just installed the Garmin GFC500 auto pilot and will see what it does in turbulence and whether I need to disconnect.

Your videos are so informative and full of learning opportunities, not just for pilots but for anyone interested in aviation. There seems to be a common theme with a fair few of these accidents - Over-reliance on autopilots, especially in heavy weather. Your videos should be required viewing for anyone learning to fly. Keep up the great work.

In the old days, the main function of a pilot in rough weather is to maintain the attitude of the airplane. Autopilot off. Meaning flying with your hands and feet. Don't chase the instruments, maintain your attitude. Of course you must slow way down initially.

Have a friend that flew an older Continental powered Malibu for many years, a CFI used it once and overstressed the airframe, he refused to fly the aircraft again until it was repaired. the tell tail sign was that the paint had cracked around the rivets on both wings and horizontal stabilizer. A wonderful aircraft that should only be flown by the knowledgeable owner.

Thanks again Sir. Our thoughts are with the family and friends. This is so bad again...if they had seen your previous videos about this, they might be here still. I've had some real arguments over time with pilots and instructors who did not have the first idea about this, and what Va is there for. Why is this not a bold face focus in the training process...? Seems like the manufacturers would insist on this as well.

A little weather analysis: at 1630z, roughly 35 minutes prior to the accident, there was a line of strong storms that were heading east of a COU-JEF line. To the west of that line, the NEXRAD showed virtually no echoes. However, by 1650z, a new cluster of storms formed in the wake of the initial line and completely filled in the clear spot, directly in the path of N451MA, which flew into the cluster. The radar composite showed some of the embedded storms indicating 45-55dBz echoes with tops to FL300-400 as of the 1700 and 1710z sweeps (accident at 1705z). There were AIRMETs for moderate turbulence from the surface to 120 and 180 to 390 (note the accident aircraft would have been between these). There was also a convective SIGMET for the entire northern half of MO for severe embedded thunderstorms from 200@55kts, tops above FL450, tornadoes, 2" hail, and wind gusts to 60kts possible. Several storms to the northeast were severe-warned. Icing charts indicated a high probability of icing and SLD at 150 over exactly the crash site, presumably associated with the thunderstorm activity. The wind aloft forecast for the time period at KCOU was 2058+02 at 120 and 2173-12 at 180 (note the temperature lapse of 14°C in 6000'). Stepping back a little farther, the aircraft had been on a direct line to the destination until 1650z, when it turned south, presumably to avoid a more mature squall line farther to the west, however, this put it into the path of the storms that would initiate minutes later. Going back even farther to 1300z (90 minutes before the 1438z departure), the convective SIGMETs were already in place, the thunderstorm forecast showed the squall lines going through the accident area at the accident time. SPC showed an enhanced convective outlook along the planned flightpath, and the icing forecasts were all in alignment with what happened a few hours later. However, the convective activity at that time was all west of Topeka and the downstream storms wouldn't begin to initiate, near the accident area, until closer to 15-16z. There is often a discrepancy between observed, mature weather and subsequent downstream initiation due to diurnal heating. One takeaway is that storms can and often do pop up well ahead of existing weather. Not sure whether the aircraft had onboard weather radar or was getting a (delayed) NEXRAD feed, which can make a big difference. But it went from no echoes to pretty ugly in a 10-20 minute span. Might also consider the 65-ish knot headwinds and how that plays into flying into developing weather. Love your content, as always, great review of the V-G diagram!

My experience with RC aircraft is when the horizontal stab goes away, there is a strong pitch-down moment with a semi-symmetrical wing airfoil.

Juan, you said exactly the same thing my first instructor, Bill, told me as a PP student in 1985 when I told him about struggling with turbulence on my first solo cross-country: slow down, gentle on the controls to stay upright, and request/accept a block altitude (I was using flight following) until things smooth out. It seems some of today’s pilots are bedazzled by the gee-whiz cool avionics in modern panels and forget (or never learn) the basic physical principles that govern all aircraft and ultimately determine the limits of safety and survivability.

Talking about gusts: the relevant airspeed is primarily vC (for the certification engineer), or vNO (for the pilot), which is typically higher than vA and independent of the actual flying weight at the moment. The structure is designed to withstand gusts up to vC/vNO. The checklist shown does not mention vNO. The footage shown indicates a failure of the horizontal tail attachment to the fuselage. The scenario presented could be one possible cause. The autopilot maneuvering above vA may cause structural failure as described, if it has sufficient authority, and it is for sure the right thing to do to disconnect the autopilot and relieve the structure of these additional maneuvering loads. I could, however, imagine other possible causes, without being familiar with that particular design and without judging their probability: Metal fatigue could have weakened some structural member to a point where the gust encountered caused it to fail. Corrosion could also have led to a similar weakening. Erroneous maintenance or repair would also be a possibility to be considered and to be investigated and hopefully ruled out by the thorough NTSB investigation.

I truly believe you save lives with the work you are doing. Thank you so much.

I got into some serious turbulence in my light sport plane two days ago. I looked down at my airspeed indicator to verify maneuvering speed and paused for a second. Getting down to that speed meant I would stay in this stressful situation longer. I can honestly say I had a moment where I wanted to increase my speed to get out of it quicker. In my case it was only a passing thought and I did slow down. However, when your flying along I think it's hard for most pilots to imagine that this solid metal machine we are in is just going to "come from together" just because our airspeed is a little high. Even though you may know this logically, I think some pilots may not truly appreciate the reality. I think the idea of "getting out of it quicker" can be tempting for some, right up until a wing falls off.

Maneuvering speed was critical in picking my BaronB58TC. Basically it is a non Pressurized P58. the Va for the P Baron and the 58TC is 170 kts, about the highest of all piston GA aircraft. In the mid teens where I flew the TC at approx 62% power at about 5,600# I would indicate 168kts, below maneuvering speed while having a TAS of 210-220 kts, burning about 32-33 gph. what an airplane!!!! It was the same FIKI airplane that I only operated the boots during an annual. a bit over 50 years ago I was asked by my instrument instructor during a localizer approach to CMA, What is a good IFR airplane? I replied this 182, it's sure rock solid. He said "No, Boeing 707, and never forget it.!" I haven't, so I'm still here to watch Juan.

Flying from Ohio to Maryland couple weeks ago in my Cardinal, I was explaining to my wife why I turned off the AP in turbulence (not as gracefully as you described it) and slowed down to VA. We rocked and rolled a little bit and it took us 20-25 more minutes than planned, but that was better than the alternative. It pays to hear this type of analysis from time to time, but I wish it weren't under these circumstances.

Back in the mid-1980s, I was flying an E55 Baron for a banker as my first corporate job. We were flying from Lincoln, NE to Kimball, NE in the late spring and late afternoon. The weather was basically good except for a large, severe thunderstorm around North Platte that I deviated to the south to avoid in clear air. Out the SW side of the TRW was this black, ugly, horizontal cloud with what appeared to be possible rotation. I was flying parallel with this for maybe 20 miles and still had another good 20 miles before I really wanted to turn on course. Again, it was clear everywhere behind the storm, except for this nasty-looking cloud. My boss was getting really antsy and kept pointing towards home and saying you can go under that. If I recall, we were at 7,500 and the base appeared to be a thousand to fifteen hundred feet above that. I kept telling him we didn't want to mess with that, but he kept at me. I finally relented and turned on course, but I slowed the airplane down to at least 20 knots below the maneuvering speed which I think was about 155 kt. As we got right under the cloud all hell broke loose!! It was like hitting a brick wall going up and then going down and I did pretty much a wing over as I did a 180. The boss's wife, and a manager, were asleep in the back. The manager was a big guy and he bumped his head pretty good on the ceiling. My boss just looked at me and said he guessed I was right. Once we landed, and I crawled out of the airplane, I discovered the right inboard gear door just flopping in the breeze!! The sudden jarring of the airplane caused the gear to bounce enough in the wheel well to break the connecting rod to the door! I only had maybe 800 hours at the time and probably less than 150 hours of multi. I'm just glad I had enough experience and knowledge to slow way down before even trying to go under this thing. In all my flying after that, I never saw such a dark, nasty cloud out the back of a thunderstorm again. I surmised that it was very possibly a horizontal tornado. I don't know if those are actually possible, especially to extend around forty miles from the main storm, but it was one of those few seconds in a flying career you'll never forget!

Great practical use of the vg diagram and discussion on knowing the basics of ac limits, Mr. Brown! It’s very sad to hear the pilot didn’t survive. But we can all learn from this unfortunate event. I’m going through CFI currently and have seen this diagram a hundred times recently. We’ve all seen it. This is a reminder to me how important it is to understand the fundamentals of flying a plane. And then apply it when flying any ac. And turn the AP off and hand fly when required!

I love this channel. We get more info from you early than we get from the NTSB much later. I make sure my son in law , who is working toward the airlines , watches all of your videos. Great stuff. Keep it up.

When i was young doctors were being killed in Bonanza’s. Now it’s Mailbus. Crossing a strong cold front is suicidal in a any single engine Excellent video

Most aviation insurance companies won't insure you in one of these things unless you take a special course on how to handle the aircraft (essentially a type rating). A friend (BOS AA 737 Capt) has a side gig teaching one of these certified courses.

That was a wicked storm. I am an experienced traveler and normally turbulence is barely noticeable to me, I believe on that day, the commercial flight I was on experienced moderate turbulence as bad as I have ever experienced from takeoff to landing and later that night, slightly diminished. On the outbound flight, the captain advised there would be no in flight service as the turbulence was going to be rough.

I'm starting my ppl classes on Tuesday. Thanks for explaining that chart.

Like with so many fast private aircraft, owners are loath to reduce to appropriate speeds when in rough air. They have a fast machine and by golly they ain't slowing down. So they tend to be underestimating how bad it is or could be ahead. Auto pilots do a heck of a job hiding how bad it really is sometimes. It's an aviation story since way back.

EXCELLENT report. The accident descriptions are always in a methodological and technical manner. Thanks very much. Greetings from Mexico City.

Thank you for making these videos. I learn so much from each of them.

That was tornado alley at that time. Several touched down and caused serious damage.

Most excellent analysis. Reminds me of something I was told during my training: "There are two limitations to keep in mind while flying any aircraft: the pilot's limitations as well as the aircraft's. If you want to stay safe in light aircraft you need to know, and stay well within, both of these limitations.

I flew a couple hundred hours on PA46-310. The problem is that it cruises around 150-160 KTS IAS at a high level, and when shit hits the fan, you MUST act immediately. This was the first thing I had to memorize. You have lost the game if you do not get to the proper speed....

Sobering thoughts…tks Juan.

It’s heartbreaking that these debriefings are even needed, but absolutely necessary.

always full of respectful appreciation for all you do.

Another excellent video and great learning experience from the Juan Brown Aerospace & Flight University, always quickly reporting on the latest aircraft incidents/accidents. Thanks

From the outside it seems simple. But when you are zipping along in a slippery fast pressurized single there are a few decisions to make if you want to slow down suddenly. Pull the throttle way back and lose pressurization? Throw out the gear? Many of these fast planes have speed brakes for a reason. But many pilots seem to think they are only for steep decents or poor atc planning. I fly a 210 over the rockies and turbulence can come out of nowhere quickly on you. I've got into the habit of dumping the speed brakes to drop to manuevering speed, slowing rolling back the throttle to prevent pressure drop, and possibly throwing out the gear if needed too. Its the only way i have found to slow down or decend through turbulence at Va. A gear door is better to lose than a control surface.

I used to fly the earliest 310 hp model of the malibou and it can easily put you in a dangerous corner. I prepared my self for a rather odd series of actions should I encounter turbulence on descend from cruising altitude, namely. If I encounter bad turbulence I don't want to pull the power back due to shock cooling and risk of loosing cabin pressure, since the pressurization comes from the turbo. The plane I was flying didn't have any speed brakes so my only option would be to turn 180 degrees, climb to get the speed down and then extend the gear. After that I would be able to turn back on course and continue the descend below manoeuvring speed. This would have appeared to be a strange way of flying to the controllers and other traffic but this was what I was prepared to do in such a situation. This plane should never have been approved to fly without speed brakes in my mening. I hope other pilots will consider this issue before flying a PA-46.

Thanks for all you do Juan.

Good Day Juan. Back to another sad ending. Thank You for excellent information & Best Regards.

Crazy that that aircraft looks like it’s been in the trees for 20 years

Very instructive, my friend!

Totally agree with your advice on autopilot and Va. if flying in moderate or stronger turbulence you should hand fly the aircraft I’ve experienced strong pitch actions from autopilots in the PA46 while checking out customers in new Malibus at Piper. Also extreme roll maneuvers in Seneca III in turbulence created by thunderstorms often resulting in banks in excess of 70 degrees Somewhat of topic , I own Tesla Model 3 with FSD which used Heuristic code in controlling car in V11. This caused some scary situations in V11. To the point where I stopped using it. When I got V12 which uses Neural nets end to end the car performed like a human. It is now so good I let the car do all the driving Makes me wonder what the software engineers did or are doing to improve the reliability of software used in autopilots

Once again, excellent analysis Juan. From my ground school class over 4 decades ago , Re: VFR/IFR, " IF IN DOUBT, WAIT IT OUT.".

Thanks, Juan. Fine breakdown, as per.

Understanding weather is paramount, when you fly. In 56 years of flying, I studied weather and lived in the air many hours. With understanding weather, a pilot can survive.

That was the BEST explanation of control failure I've ever heard. My short stint in A&P class (grad of avionics) touched on this but with no real comprehension. Thanks, Juan, for your insight and experience translated to dummies like me.

Thanks Juan, VERY clear and VERY important information !! Just too bad we have to have to be reminded this way.....

Thanks for showing the V-G. People need to understand one exists for everything that flies.

Very good, Juan, I learned something here I won't forget. The problem is I'm no pilot and have no access to an aircraft myself and so no possible incident involvement here myself - we need pilots who may be affected by such environment and experience to learn about this before they become but another sad case study. And that requires their involvement in the continual learning that you and your associates strongly advocate for. This episode certainly puts that message forward.

I've seen it before... someone gets a new plane with glass screens and a little power, and all of a sudden they think they're invincible. Icarus begs to differ... Another sad one that was completely avoidable. Thanks again Juan.

Informative as always, thanks

Had a business related trip in a Beach Bonanza several decades ago. Ended up flying through thunderheads around Huntsville, and kept trying to thread the needle, but eventually the clouds just closed up all around and the weather radar (very crude) showed SOLID RED. I remember looking at the wings and watching them vibrate up/down and thinking "wow, this plane thinks it's a hummingbird". Eventually landed and the two co-workers in the rear were shaken prettty bad and the guy in the tail seat had bad motion sickness. It was one of my worst flights I have experienced including some sarajevo landings in total darkness/blackout conditions.

Nice job reporting/explaining this, as always!

Great walkthrough Juan! Every Pilot needs to hear this information.

Thanks again for your exceptional analysis!

RIP. Life is fragile. Thank you Juan, this channel is fantastic

Great analysis and explanation JB!! Love yer channel!

Always so much to learn from your content Juan, thank you for your expert analysis of yet another tragic incident. Condolences to the family and friends of the lost pilot 💔

Couldn’t agree with you more Juan! Inexperience causes more fatal accidents. As a retired captain/pic of several turboprop and jet aircraft…..I had “several” co-pilots (both experienced and inexperienced) insist on using the GPS/Nexrad/Downloaded radar instead of the “live” Radar! We need to understand that any downloaded radar “can be” up to the minute accuracy……but can also be “several” minutes old/delayed. Used “together” makes for awesome tools…….but “Live Radar” is always priority! Not saying this was the case in this accident but just wondering. Just my opinion of course. Early in my career I read about accidents in the AOPA magazine. Learning from others Juan! Great resource you provide! I’m thanking you for the rest of us.

I guess it IS in fact easy to believe your new $1M plane can handle more than 103tks unloaded thru Wx. I wouldve been wrong too! Educating and Sobering to say the least! Cheers from Texas!

My old business partner died in his Malibu. It had a turboprop and from what I have heard, not an easy plane to handle. His f up was taking off in the ADIZ without a transponder code in advance (Tipton MD). The ATC jumped on him and ordered him to land. His mistake in IFR was trying to land back at Tipton. Witnesses said he came out of the low clouds upside down. The postscript was two years later in another Maiibu, his brother and sister in law died from icing in Minnesota. Yeesh

Juan, thank you for your videos. As a student pilot, I have learned so much from them. Please keep them coming.

Thanks Juan. Hard lesson for sure. Please keep doing what you do. A lot of GA pilots watch your channel. You do make a difference.

The sad irony is that those who can afford the aircraft (even on a rental) are probably best placed to afford a room for the night, and won't get fired for being late tomorrow. It's the opposite of say motorists driving in a snow storm or fog. They still have a choice but maybe can't afford the room or being late to work. I'm wondering if another factor is the fancy electronics. If you've only got 3 dials and a stick I suspect a pilot is more likely to run away (sensibly) from almost any weather. When it feels like Star Trek, people forget the rest of the aircraft is still basically a Sopwith Camel from 1918. (not quite, but hopefully you see what I mean).

Just, just went through another St. Louis thunderstorm. Yuge rain. So much water in the air, you'd think it easy to drown. Tornado sirens. Cellphone warnings. Sustain 40+ mph winds at ground level. Big gusts. Flying in that in a GA aircraft is suicide.

As a lifelong sailor I've learned that my job is to put my boat in harmony with the elements. Never fight with the sea. You will lose. Never test the limits of your boat either if you want to live. Keep her on her feet with the helm balanced so you can steer with one finger. Reef early. The autopilot steers best when the boat is balanced. It cannot keep watch and it cannot navigate. It cannot trim or reef or strike sails, hat's your job. The autopilot makes it easier, but it's an idiot. Never forget that. Keep the boat under control and moving in the general direction of your destination. Don't hit anything. Don't fall off. You'll reach port safely and comfortably if you can mange all three. Finally, avoid bad weather at all costs. Don't challenge mother nature. I'm telling you: She's a real b*tch. Especially when she's angry.

Another sad deal thanks for all the work you do in informing us to help prevent more tragedies

Non pilot but keen aviation fan here: Is this a training issue? I mean pilots learn how to fly a particular aircraft type and go on their merry way. Should this be considered only 50% of the training? Shouldn't they also mandate training on how not to fly that particular aircraft type on a regular refresher basis rather than leaving it up to the individual pilot to look up that info? i.e. learning from previous crashes, keeping up to date with the latest accident causes etc.

When Juan says, "See you here." at the end, You can hear His frustration with this kind of GA fatals in His voice.

I very much appreciate your sharing of your professional knowledge and expertise Juan

Thanks for the great explanation Juan.