After accomplishing a touch and go landing at the airport in Wendover, Utah, during a moonless night, the pilot initiated a left climbing turn and orientated himself with the departure end of the runway by looking outside and behind the Cessna 182.
While looking outside, he inadvertently put the airplane into a left steep bank and was unable to recover.
Prior to the airplane hitting terrain, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and wings, as well as two serious injuries, the pilot reported there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to maintain situational awareness during a turn, which resulted in a loss of airplane control.
NTSB Identification: WPR15CA059
This December 2014 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Night VFR may be such insofar as ceiling and viz is concerned but with no reference to a horizon its essentially IFR with attention to attitude via instrumentation essential to avoid such a situation as described in this accident.
Sounds familiar, I thought first he may have had gyro vacuum failure. But alas it was just inattention to pitch and roll. I was with a instrument rated attorney in a Mooney at night with high overcast and moonless coming our of Meigs Field, Chicago. The pump apparently failed on take-off. While climbing out I noticed some excessive bank angle the way the standby compass was acting. I noticed that the T&B was into a steep r/h bank while the DG was not. I questioned the pilot owner as to what he was doing. Then I took over the coaching job. We had to level the attitude and start turns and stops with the magnetic compass until wee got 180 degrees around to the lights on the shore. He refused to turn left toward the city so to make our effort easy and then asked me if we should call an emergency. I told him the emergency was over and we needed to get home to Wichita, we did succeed with that.
Continuing Chicago to Wichita at NIGHT! with a failed vacuum pump? The T&B is an instrument showing direction and “rate” of turn and does not directly indicate “attitude”. The DG is not an “attitude” instrument, it is a “direction” indicator.
Foolish and irresponsible to say the least and time for retraining or giving up flying before you become a statistic.
There is no docket information such as pilot interviews, photographs, weather, witness reports, etc, and the pilot/operator report is blank. The very, very brief NTSB narrative report suggests the pilot was uncooperative with the NTSB, and that other factors than mere inattention were involved in this accident.
Never, ever, not ever take your focus off completing turns when low and slow, especially in a climbing turn.
A few additional hours under the hood with an instructor would be a fantastic idea before venturing out in real night VFR conditions – whether it is required or not. An artificial horizon can be a real friend on a dark night.