Reply #87: 900' AGL

[Hawkowl]

Instrument Landing System (ILS) approaches are based on a 3:1 descent ratio. So 5 miles out equals about 1500' above ground level (AGL), 3 miles 900 AGL, etc.

200 - 500 feet should be adequate to recover from a stall if the pilot is fairly sharp. A stall on an ILS approach is not very likely if there wasn't any ice on the wing. (I have not examined the weather report).

Wellstone's accident was blamed on a failed attitude indicator (artificial horizon gyro) which is typically powered by a vacuum pump off the engine on small planes. It is VERY difficult to fly in the clouds without an attitude indicator.

Something to keep in mind is the fact that accidents rarely have a single cause. It is usually a chain of small errors and failures that eventually overwhelm or sneak up on a pilot.

In an accident like this something like a small instrument failure, combined with pilot fatigue, poor weather and slight icing up of the wing or pitot tube or static ports, and something as simple as tuning in the wrong navigation frequency would be enough to do the pilot in. In all likelihood, we probably will never know the exact cause of this crash. There are no black boxes on small aircraft.

I'm a 12,000 hour airline captain and have been flying for twenty years.