Free Flight, Free Speech

I heard it was a cessna 310... terrible accident.

I still don't get it. Was what the waitress described really a tailstrike?

jwocky wrote:I still don't get it. Was what the waitress described really a tailstrike?

Yea sounds like what she described was a tailstrike, which seem to point to overloading / power deficiency while forcing the plane into the air... would rain make a big difference in drag/weight/lift for takeoff?

Hard to say. Rain means cooler air, so generally, a bit more lift, on the other hand if it is serious rain, it can increase actually aerodynamically drag because any suction cause by turbulences behind the wings for example would include on wet air, which is a bit denser and heavier. But how this plays out in real numbers is probably not only different from aircraft to aircraft but even with the same model from trim, load and balance.

When the plane was flying, there was torrential rain in the area. This past January was the wettest in 8 years.

Aside of the tail strike, she was obviously not able to gain altitude, so maybe she was quite heavy?

Watching a few pictures of the 310, i notice that a tailstrike would hit at the flimsy very end of the tail. Any bending there could easily damage the ailerons or jam the rudder. Resulting in bad controllability when airborne.

Kind regards, Vincent