If you cannot fly a plane by hand, then you should NOT use the autopilot…. An iPad, gps and autopilot will not save you if you don’t have the stick and rudder skills keep the greasy side down. While I would hopefully give the benefit of the doubt to the pilot, it seems there might be more to the story than simply a bad autopilot. Have flown MANY flight in/out of SBP over the years….kinda amazing the plane didn’t hit the hills.
Gryder notes that "setting up" the autopilot is not a thing. You turn it on. It appears the pilot is a fast talking fabulist & now with himself, two seniors and two dogs back on the ground, should remain there.
@@wintercame Yeah, well, Gryder is (IMHO) an arrogant @$$ who shouldn't be listened to. All but the simplest modes on the autopilot _do_ require some setup.
I don't know what was going on in that cockpit and I don't think I'm the only one. That controller literally saved his life. I know ATC usually has some kind of annual awards. She deserves one!
Yeah been trying to figure that out myself. "flight control issues"? If I had to speculate (which on the internet is our function here) he was not proficient hand flying in the soup. I LOVE my GFC700, but if it took a dump on me, uhhhh, I could be that pilot.
What a terrific job by ATC. The stress was so clear in the pilot's voice, departure controller made absolutely the right call not to try to get him to switch over to Tower. Kudos to everyone involved, and glad it ended well.
I saw this story on DG and elsewhere. I don't think he sounded stressed as I would have expected, more befuddled and trying to stave off ATC questions and instructions with bs so as not to appear incompetent to them or his two passenger owners. My other point I'll add here rather than comment again: DG initially said he or ground manager guy filled all six tanks, leaving no weight left for any pax and sundries. DG didn't go back to it, but could this pilot? been constantly getting stall warnings and couldn't climb much at all? I guess his airspeed would show on the recorded track.
Wonderful job by the SBA Approach controller. Used the emergency vector map, changed transmitters, declared the emergency for the pilot, didn’t get mad at him, coordinated, kept comms to a minimum, and got him down. There are other examples where the controller did the complete opposite in similar circumstances. As to the pilot, you have this controller to thank for your life, and I hope you thoroughly debrief the event without the shadow of pride covering up the root cause. - Harold Rutila IV CFI-IA/ATP
There were two ladies consecutively. Both brilliant beyond comprehension. Both could fly that plane over the radio if a child was the only one conscious at the controls.
I imagine that was a very rough ride... First you're in IMC, which might not necessarily be rough, but can be pretty bad, then your autopilot decides to take a shit and starts throwing your plane around like a badminton... I'd probably freak out too!
@@awesomecronk7183 I'm not convince that the autopilote did that once disconnected. I'm not convince either about the proficiency of this pilote to simply maintain a stable flight manually in IMC. May be too dependent on autopilote to pilote his aircraft. I agree with @daniel133 on the assumption this pilote wasn't in control of his airplane neither his nerves and was about to be on another YT Channel where its discusses about GA crashes. Fortunately it has a great end.
@@laurentsamson8927 nah you really need to watch what you're saying. The literal Flight sim armchair pilot doesn't get a seat at the table with ADULTS with REAL PILOTS LICENSES AND TRAINING!
@@drewway9599Look at this pedant who thinks he's the only one with a license in his village. If you think that you too would be incapable of maintaining a stable flight without visibility, it is precisely because you are not competent and trained. Knowing where you are and where you are going is one thing but maintaining an altitude and heading is very easy if there is not too much turbulence. Then if you are guided by ATC to get you to your destination then everything is good. This guy couldn't maintain a stable flight because without a functioning autopilot, he had lost the minimal skill of flying properly. This is exactly what emerges from this video. Idiot.
@@drewway9599 I agree with Lauren, my first impression was this pilot lacked proficiency in hand flying the airplane in IMC. And I am one of the REAL pilots with an IR.
ATC took him by her hand, saved his life by taking control of this situation even without embarrassing him in an absolutely professional way when she realized, that he would not make it on his own at all. I´m deeply amazed.
Amazing ATC performance. Consistently in control of the situation and great judgment in declaring an emergency, vectoring, and repeating essential information like the clearance to land. Touches my heart!
When taking off from runway 29 at SBP you initially fly through the valley with terrain on both sides. The region also has a lot of fog depending on the time of day/night. The controller sounded like their main concern was to get them some altitude to make sure they didn’t hit one of the hills. I fly into SBP tonight and fly out of there every 2-3 months(as a passenger).
Amazingly calm approach controller under pressure especially with that low altitude alarm sounding in the background. She kept her instructions and questions simple, recognized the danger of the situation well before the pilot even acknowledged it, heard the stress in the pilots voice, kept the pilot on freq to reduce workload, and kept a calm/neutral tone. This could have been a tragic loss but for her excellent deescalation of a tense situation.
Another poor pilot. His basic instrument skills are lacking. He couldn’t fly the plane so AP engaged. I hope the FSDO requires him to get remedial training and his employer doesn’t allow him to fly until he shows proficiency.
THAT is the controller I want on with me if I ever have an emergency. Amazing job on her part!! I really like how she took authority to go ahead and declare an emergency when it was obvious the situation called for it.
I'm so glad this pilot is still with us. Too many of these situations end with deaths, and it's such a relief for one of them to successfully recover. Good work by all parties, someone gets to go home with a story and a new tool in their survival kit.
Pilot is clearly incompetent - it's the hapless passengers who initially thought he did a great job, but will quickly find out his incompetence nearly killed them.
That was skeeeeetchy. I’m glad it turned out ok for all involved. I love your channel and you do an amazing job of capturing and trimming relevant bits. Thank you!
This was some kind of a miracle that he got back safely on the ground! If you check FR24 at 18:03 UTC he was showing at 1200 feet and a ground speed of only 38 knots but an excessive rate of descent of - 10880…unbelievalble!
This woman deserves a raise, amazing job. Not often do you hear ATC declare an emergency for the aircraft, but I think she definitely made the right decision
It'll be a crime if this isn't part of core training for ATC in the very near future. Hell, even current ATC would learn a lot from what I've seen on this channel.
ATC did incredibly well here and likely saved lives. I don't understand why the pilot failed to communicate the nature of their problem at the outset of the incident. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, I get it, but it seems like the pilot was embarrassed and withheld information from the controller, saying repeatedly that they would be able to follow vectors when they clearly couldn't, and wound up nearly sending themselves into the side of a mountain. The controller shouldn't be the person declaring an emergency on your behalf.
i was under the impression that the pilot initially didn't know the extend of his problems, and thought whatever he did solved the immediate problem, and then when things turned out to not be fixed was busy flying the aircraft
Initially I suspect he thought it was an autopilot problem and if he could just troubleshoot that it wouldn't be a significant problem but evidently he couldn't get the autopilot working then he couldn't control the aircraft either.
This guy gets it, controller having to declare an emergency for the lame **s pilot was such a joke. What really happened is all on Dan Gryder’s page. Pilot is hiding in the dog house in complete embarrassment right now.
I believe this situation was completely pilot error and nothing was wrong with the aircraft, he just blamed control issues because he got lost in IMC conditions. He’s not going to declare emergency due to pilot inexperience leading to complete breakdown in training and control.
Excellent ATC! Don't want to judge, I wasn't there, but it seems the pilot may need some more training in flying instruments without autopilot. I'm curious if the autopilot was indeed defective or if he just didn't have it set up correctly. He sounded pretty confused and behind the aircraft, but all ended well thanks to an ATC cool head, and that's what counts.
This looks like me trying to figure out the autopilot and GPS on my flightsim (x-plane). The damn thing is unintuitive, but I have no training and am not putting lives at risk. I just don't hear of autopilots and controls doing stuff like this without some physical damage to the control surfaces. And I've never heard of an autopilot that cannot be disengaged and the plane flown manually (this is what I do in my simulator, imagine that...). I have heard of people crashing planes for not understanding their autopilot.
@@paulsaulpaul I think it's less about how the autopilot works or if the autopilot was working, and more about head down trying to figure out how to use it and forgetting to fly the airplane. Even if the autopilot was DOA, that's no excuse for not flying the plane. Airline pilots have flown airliners manually on international flights. The workload is very high and it is no fun, but it can be done. We may be all wet and perhaps there was a malfunction, but I think most are skeptical at this point.
I hope the female ATC gets to see the respect she earned in this situation. Her situational awareness was amazing, she was precise and clear, declared an emergency even before the pilot did, kept communication on one frequency and eased the demands on the pilot in this tense situation.
This was close to a disaster. Know how your auto pilot works. A RUclipsr named Tenessee girl recently crashed in good weather as she messed around with her autopilot. Killed herself and her father.
I consider pilot failure when the pilot has no understanding of what's going on and does nothing about it because situational awareness is so degraded they are unaware. This guy was wise enough to know something was screwed up and called knock it off and asked for help before he went cfit.
@@cjbprime he told her what the problem was. Aviate, navigate, communicate. No point with a useless radio call about a clear emergency while below MSA.
@@goodshipkaraboudjan he lied to her about what the problem was, both by saying that he'd disabled a malfunctioning autopilot but then inexplicably turning it back on again quietly later, and also by continuing to be unable to maintain an altitude or heading long after the "problem" with the autopilot had been fixed. The actual problem, which he never admitted to, was that he's not competent to fly that plane in IMC.
@@cjbprime ever flown an old twin or anything with a really old AP? They're dodgy AF and known to malfunction, disconnecting isn't just going to be as simple as a circuit breaker as wing level and ALT hold, HDG are on different circuits and they're known to malfunction and argue. It can be as simple as runaway trim. Anyway, neither of us knows the full story so I'm not going to just knee jerk and blame the pilot.
When things go wrong in IMC and tunnel vision sets in, its very dangerous. Simple tasks become complex, scan suffers and task saturation never goes away. I really question if pilot was IFR Rated? Sounds too dependent on autopilot.
Im glad the pilot didn't try to "pretend" that he could fix it himself he released he could not do it alone and accepted the help from ATC besides the controller being very helpful
Would all traffic controllers handle this so perfectly? She seems to understand / empathize with what’s going on in the cockpit in addition to her ATC duties
@@jamescollier3 Yeah, identifying that there was a problem straight away and that she needed to take charge so was the key thing. Most controllers can support a pilot in an emergency competently when the pilot says they have an emergency and need help, but I'm not sure how common this level of proactivity is.
Definitely not , this was exceptional. It’s like every other field in life some controllers are excellent some are competent. Some are familiar with aircraft some have no idea what goes in in the cockpit.
As a pilot that was superbly handled by ATC. She didn't task saturate him with freq changes and behind the scenes obviously communicated swiftly and quickly with colleagues in Centre to contact the airport and set everything up for him as best she could. Love the calls on field location from roll out on heading. Pilot did great to, scary stuff in VMC let alone in IMC.
Crazy how calm he sounded while flying the plane like that. I wonder if the autopilot wouldn't turn off or something or if he was just insanely disoriented
That was a crazy one. ATC did a great job, and the pilot remained pretty damned calm sounding given that he was having so much trouble maintaining altitude or direction.
This guy sounds like he has no business being in the pointy end of a light twin by himself in IMC. "The autopilot just went out of wack" - ok. Well if you're instrument proficient, you should be able to at least hand fly the airplane up to a safe altitude, then fly an approach an land. The multiple upsets and near collisions with terrain are not indicative of someone who has an instrument rating or who is instrument current. Kudos to ATC for stepping up and saving this guy's life as well as the lives of everyone onboard.
As much as people are blaming the incompetency of the pilot, note that once he got the airport in sight, he had much more control and calmed down enough to land. It seems like whatever AP failure may have occurred (idk the systems of this aircraft to know what may have happened mechanically), the pilot kicked it off while startled in IMC, and there may even have been some spatial disorientation at play. Flying IFR is no joke, and you really have to be prepared for it, and it seems like he may not have been. Rule number one for using autopilot: if you can't do the flight yourself, don't ask the autopilot to do it for you
I don't think he was incompetent. At least to me, it sounded like when he started having issues with the autopilot, it kind of threw him off and he got behind the plane. Also, I'm wondering if the issue was really the autopilot and not something else with flight controls. At least at one point, he mentioned being unable to maintain altitude. Sadly, without anything in the cockpit to show us what was going on, we'll never know.
@@jackielinde7568 that's not entirely true. The NTSB can still investigate the systems, including where various switches and controls were at the time of landing, and they can get some good pilot interviews too
@@jackielinde7568 that's not entirely true. The NTSB can still investigate the systems, including where various switches and controls were at the time of landing, and they can get some good pilot interviews too
Just to clarify, this was only an emergency because the pilot was not capable of controlling the airplane at all. He needs more instruction and more time flying in real IMC in that airplane. He also needs to listen to this audio and hear how he constantly missed things because he was stepping on ATC. Nothing important on the airplane was malfunctioning. If you can't recognize the problem, continue to fly by hand, then diagnose the issue once you're enroute and workload has decreased, then you just shouldn't be flying. Again, the important thing here is not so much the shop time to fix the autopilot. They need to get the pilot out of rotation and into some additional training immediately.
@@chrisstaples182 We don't know if it was just poor hand flying skills with an unexpected autopilot system failure, or an actual control issue in IMC. In either case the pilot survived it so he did better than some when things goes wrongs.
@TheFlyingZulu it was an autopilot malfunction.....which they are clearly reliant on, and became flustered when they had to actually fly the aircraft in imc. It's a classic case really and happens often these days
@@chrisstaples182 But you don't actually know if there were any other control issues with the aircraft. Any control malfunction in IMC would fluster a single pilot operation. More so if it the manual controls were also malfunctioning.
@TheFlyingZulu he was controlling thr aircraft fine once he got his shit together tho. He was fine in vmc, it was in IMC he had all his problems. If it was a control issue, no way he would have made it
ATC did a great job saving the guy's bacon. He will have some explanation to do exactly what happened there. An AP acting up can surely create a major temporary distraction, but should not result in continued misalignment with ATC instructions.
Important to remember that there were two passengers and two dogs here and one take off had already been abandoned due to a door not being closed properly. It sounded obvious that this pilot was not very experienced and should not have been taking passengers out if not able to fly without an auto pilot. I thought that was basic airmanship? Regardless of system failures (?) the flightpath was almost comical, if there weren't real lives at risk.
If you don't understand how to operate the door on the airplane (which admittedly is not as simple as a car door, because it's a pressurized airplane, but it's not THAT complicated) what are the odds that you understand how to work the autopilot? I recognize the stress level of someone who's internal gyros are not agreeing with the instruments. The controller was what we used to call a Steely Eyed Missileman (The highest praise for coolness under pressure). The pilot was in the shark infested deep end and not keeping up with the basic tasks of keeping the blue side up on the attitude indicator and a positive rate of climb. Everyone in that airplane is lucky to be alive.
Rushed to this comment section to see if the well-deserved appreciation for this ATC was here, and it was. Felt like a kid on Christmas morning running to see if Santa came.
ATC did a great job. If the autopilot was the problem, part of the checklist would be to pull the breaker. If he can’t hand fly in IMC, he doesn’t belong there. It’s not simple, but isn’t all that hard, either.
Maybe the nature of the issue was such that there were control pressures due to bad rigging or servos or something and the pilot had to constantly fight against the airplane to keep it under control while also trying to set up a return to the airport. It seems like him just being bad at hand flying might not be it.
![[REAL ATC] A tornado passes right through Fort Lauderdale Airport!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4SbcSDPRQe0/mqdefault.jpg)
That must have been terrifying in IMC conditions. Kudos to ATC for the assistance!
ATC, yes. That pilot shouldn't be allowed to fly anything.
@@txkflierIt’s an excellent demonstration of why pilots should learn to fly comfortably without all the gadgets first.
If you cannot fly a plane by hand, then you should NOT use the autopilot…. An iPad, gps and autopilot will not save you if you don’t have the stick and rudder skills keep the greasy side down. While I would hopefully give the benefit of the doubt to the pilot, it seems there might be more to the story than simply a bad autopilot.
Have flown MANY flight in/out of SBP over the years….kinda amazing the plane didn’t hit the hills.
Gryder notes that "setting up" the autopilot is not a thing. You turn it on. It appears the pilot is a fast talking fabulist & now with himself, two seniors and two dogs back on the ground, should remain there.
@@wintercame Yeah, well, Gryder is (IMHO) an arrogant @$$ who shouldn't be listened to. All but the simplest modes on the autopilot _do_ require some setup.
ATC saved that pilot….well done ATC
She deserves an award
ATC was definitely the MVP here. I've got concerns about that pilot going back out onto the field.
I don’t know why disengaging the autopilot didn’t fix his situation
calming knowledge voice
@@larryscott3982 He was IMC for a good part of the time
I don't know what was going on in that cockpit and I don't think I'm the only one. That controller literally saved his life. I know ATC usually has some kind of annual awards. She deserves one!
Those altitude swings though... Had she not directed him south right off the bat that would have been a crash for sure.
i heard there was 2 big dogs in the cabin unsecure, owners dogs. they had poo prints on the ceiling
Yeah been trying to figure that out myself. "flight control issues"? If I had to speculate (which on the internet is our function here) he was not proficient hand flying in the soup. I LOVE my GFC700, but if it took a dump on me, uhhhh, I could be that pilot.
Kudos to this ATC. Amazing situational awareness, division of attention, and professional demeanor.
Wouldn't be surprised if she wins an Archie League Award for this
That recording needs to be used for ATC training!
When you need help, that’s what help is. She was awesome
Indeed
@@VASAviation Agreed, one of the BEST ATC I've heard on your videos, Victor!
What a terrific job by ATC. The stress was so clear in the pilot's voice, departure controller made absolutely the right call not to try to get him to switch over to Tower. Kudos to everyone involved, and glad it ended well.
I saw this story on DG and elsewhere. I don't think he sounded stressed as I would have expected, more befuddled and trying to stave off ATC questions and instructions with bs so as not to appear incompetent to them or his two passenger owners.
My other point I'll add here rather than comment again:
DG initially said he or ground manager guy filled all six tanks, leaving no weight left for any pax and sundries.
DG didn't go back to it, but could this pilot? been constantly getting stall warnings and couldn't climb much at all? I guess his airspeed would show on the recorded track.
Wonderful job by the SBA Approach controller. Used the emergency vector map, changed transmitters, declared the emergency for the pilot, didn’t get mad at him, coordinated, kept comms to a minimum, and got him down. There are other examples where the controller did the complete opposite in similar circumstances. As to the pilot, you have this controller to thank for your life, and I hope you thoroughly debrief the event without the shadow of pride covering up the root cause. - Harold Rutila IV CFI-IA/ATP
Great analysis, Harold. Good to see you! KS.
@@coma13794 Hey KS! Great to see you too! Hope all is well.
Excellent ATC. She handled it beautifully.
totally!
There were two ladies consecutively. Both brilliant beyond comprehension.
Both could fly that plane over the radio if a child was the only one conscious at the controls.
This should honestly be a made into a training tape on how to handle these circumstances.
ATC did a great job of giving clear and calm direction. Dude was in the verge of a full blown panic attack.
I imagine that was a very rough ride... First you're in IMC, which might not necessarily be rough, but can be pretty bad, then your autopilot decides to take a shit and starts throwing your plane around like a badminton... I'd probably freak out too!
@@awesomecronk7183 I'm not convince that the autopilote did that once disconnected. I'm not convince either about the proficiency of this pilote to simply maintain a stable flight manually in IMC. May be too dependent on autopilote to pilote his aircraft. I agree with @daniel133 on the assumption this pilote wasn't in control of his airplane neither his nerves and was about to be on another YT Channel where its discusses about GA crashes. Fortunately it has a great end.
@@laurentsamson8927 nah you really need to watch what you're saying. The literal Flight sim armchair pilot doesn't get a seat at the table with ADULTS with REAL PILOTS LICENSES AND TRAINING!
@@drewway9599Look at this pedant who thinks he's the only one with a license in his village.
If you think that you too would be incapable of maintaining a stable flight without visibility, it is precisely because you are not competent and trained. Knowing where you are and where you are going is one thing but maintaining an altitude and heading is very easy if there is not too much turbulence. Then if you are guided by ATC to get you to your destination then everything is good.
This guy couldn't maintain a stable flight because without a functioning autopilot, he had lost the minimal skill of flying properly. This is exactly what emerges from this video. Idiot.
@@drewway9599 I agree with Lauren, my first impression was this pilot lacked proficiency in hand flying the airplane in IMC. And I am one of the REAL pilots with an IR.
From a 29 year retired ATC, very well done ma’am.
Retired at 29!??
@@johnathandaniels1406 😀retired after 29 years
@@Richard-iu9sf I also thought you were retired at 29, and I was like "with all that stress they have its not surprising" ahah
@@OblivionTBR Boy that would have been nice but that would have been a 5 year career!
GREAT ATC. Calm, competent, clear-eyed, compassionate. Better than textbook. A real lifesaver.
ATC took him by her hand, saved his life by taking control of this situation even without embarrassing him in an absolutely professional way when she realized, that he would not make it on his own at all. I´m deeply amazed.
ATC Of The Year. Absolutely professional, so well done.
Amazing ATC performance. Consistently in control of the situation and great judgment in declaring an emergency, vectoring, and repeating essential information like the clearance to land. Touches my heart!
When taking off from runway 29 at SBP you initially fly through the valley with terrain on both sides. The region also has a lot of fog depending on the time of day/night. The controller sounded like their main concern was to get them some altitude to make sure they didn’t hit one of the hills. I fly into SBP tonight and fly out of there every 2-3 months(as a passenger).
That controller deserves a beer from the pilot! 😄
Amazingly calm approach controller under pressure especially with that low altitude alarm sounding in the background.
She kept her instructions and questions simple, recognized the danger of the situation well before the pilot even acknowledged it, heard the stress in the pilots voice, kept the pilot on freq to reduce workload, and kept a calm/neutral tone.
This could have been a tragic loss but for her excellent deescalation of a tense situation.
The difference in the pitch of his voice between when he was lost in IMC and when he got on the ground is striking.
Great job by that controller.
Absolutely
Another poor pilot. His basic instrument skills are lacking. He couldn’t fly the plane so AP engaged. I hope the FSDO requires him to get remedial training and his employer doesn’t allow him to fly until he shows proficiency.
THAT is the controller I want on with me if I ever have an emergency. Amazing job on her part!! I really like how she took authority to go ahead and declare an emergency when it was obvious the situation called for it.
Absolute BOSS ATC. Very well done! Pilot, too actually.
The PILOT was the problem.
@@Q1776Q The pilot had an equipment failure in blind condition. That can literally happen to the best of them.
@@hagamapama An instrument rated pilot MUST be able to fly by hand.
This has Archie League Award written all over it. If I'm ever in trouble, that's the controller I want. Great work!
Very professional controller, she cought up fast on the emergency situation.
So calm and concise
Excellent job ATC! Calm and informative. Could have had a much different outcome.
I'm so glad this pilot is still with us. Too many of these situations end with deaths, and it's such a relief for one of them to successfully recover. Good work by all parties, someone gets to go home with a story and a new tool in their survival kit.
Pilot is clearly incompetent - it's the hapless passengers who initially thought he did a great job, but will quickly find out his incompetence nearly killed them.
That was skeeeeetchy. I’m glad it turned out ok for all involved.
I love your channel and you do an amazing job of capturing and trimming relevant bits. Thank you!
Thank you for watching
I would very much like to have a debrief of what has actually happened
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb thanks!
Dan did a heck of a job, he called the owner/manager and confronted him. It's definitely worth watching!
Reliance on gadgets. He has no issues with his controls as stated, the plane is working just fine.
@@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb
This should be the pinned comment
@@whatilearnttoday5295unreal.
Excellent for all involved.
Notice the pauses... that was a great representation of aviate, navigate, communicate.
And the ATC was stellar.
That ATC did a fantastic job. Clear, calm directions in an extremely stressful situation.
That controller is more than an Angle she’s a Friggin’ Minor Deity. The level of calm in her EVERY word comes through, no doubt helping that pilot.
This was some kind of a miracle that he got back safely on the ground! If you check FR24 at 18:03 UTC he was showing at 1200 feet and a ground speed of only 38 knots but an excessive rate of descent of - 10880…unbelievalble!
That sounds like an ADS-B glitch
Could be…everything else is already knocking on heavens door!
3:17 Look at the terrifying loss of altitude
Forget that… 4:55 was my “O shit” moment.
Hey guys, good comments - can you tell me what you are looking at to determine altitude on the display? - thanks
@@billwindsor4224 The set of numbers in the bottom left corner of the aircraft in this video represents its altitude.
@@Benis650 Thank you
This woman deserves a raise, amazing job. Not often do you hear ATC declare an emergency for the aircraft, but I think she definitely made the right decision
It'll be a crime if this isn't part of core training for ATC in the very near future. Hell, even current ATC would learn a lot from what I've seen on this channel.
If you can't fly in IMC without an autopilot, you cannot fly in IMC with one either.
SBA trecon rocks, always nice to talk to. As for this pilot and plane, a genuine control issue seems hard to get my head around
SBA is staffed by some of the best of the best, and their approach is quite complex to work. What a great job she did with him.
WOW! A1 Job ATC. Saved that man's life.
That controller, she was cooler than the flip side of a silk pillow!
ATC did incredibly well here and likely saved lives. I don't understand why the pilot failed to communicate the nature of their problem at the outset of the incident. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, I get it, but it seems like the pilot was embarrassed and withheld information from the controller, saying repeatedly that they would be able to follow vectors when they clearly couldn't, and wound up nearly sending themselves into the side of a mountain. The controller shouldn't be the person declaring an emergency on your behalf.
i was under the impression that the pilot initially didn't know the extend of his problems, and thought whatever he did solved the immediate problem, and then when things turned out to not be fixed was busy flying the aircraft
Initially I suspect he thought it was an autopilot problem and if he could just troubleshoot that it wouldn't be a significant problem but evidently he couldn't get the autopilot working then he couldn't control the aircraft either.
This guy gets it, controller having to declare an emergency for the lame **s pilot was such a joke. What really happened is all on Dan Gryder’s page. Pilot is hiding in the dog house in complete embarrassment right now.
I believe this situation was completely pilot error and nothing was wrong with the aircraft, he just blamed control issues because he got lost in IMC conditions. He’s not going to declare emergency due to pilot inexperience leading to complete breakdown in training and control.
@@tropicthndrh
Wow....good job on avoiding the "Radar contact lost" transmission!
came close at 5:12 . Had he not been direct S over the coast by the ATC sometime before that would have been ground impact in the terrain around SBP
Excellent ATC! Don't want to judge, I wasn't there, but it seems the pilot may need some more training in flying instruments without autopilot. I'm curious if the autopilot was indeed defective or if he just didn't have it set up correctly. He sounded pretty confused and behind the aircraft, but all ended well thanks to an ATC cool head, and that's what counts.
This is the opinion of several RUclips experts.
This looks like me trying to figure out the autopilot and GPS on my flightsim (x-plane). The damn thing is unintuitive, but I have no training and am not putting lives at risk. I just don't hear of autopilots and controls doing stuff like this without some physical damage to the control surfaces. And I've never heard of an autopilot that cannot be disengaged and the plane flown manually (this is what I do in my simulator, imagine that...). I have heard of people crashing planes for not understanding their autopilot.
@@paulsaulpaul I think it's less about how the autopilot works or if the autopilot was working, and more about head down trying to figure out how to use it and forgetting to fly the airplane. Even if the autopilot was DOA, that's no excuse for not flying the plane. Airline pilots have flown airliners manually on international flights. The workload is very high and it is no fun, but it can be done. We may be all wet and perhaps there was a malfunction, but I think most are skeptical at this point.
Goosebumps listening to the amazing ATC !
I hope the female ATC gets to see the respect she earned in this situation. Her situational awareness was amazing, she was precise and clear, declared an emergency even before the pilot did, kept communication on one frequency and eased the demands on the pilot in this tense situation.
Best ATC ever heard, kudos to everyone for getting safely on the ground
Absolutely best ATC voice... calm and yet still stern
This was close to a disaster. Know how your auto pilot works. A RUclipsr named Tenessee girl recently crashed in good weather as she messed around with her autopilot. Killed herself and her father.
I consider pilot failure when the pilot has no understanding of what's going on and does nothing about it because situational awareness is so degraded they are unaware. This guy was wise enough to know something was screwed up and called knock it off and asked for help before he went cfit.
At which point did the pilot ask for help? Do you mean way after the ATC had already declared emergency for him?
@@cjbprime he told her what the problem was. Aviate, navigate, communicate. No point with a useless radio call about a clear emergency while below MSA.
@@goodshipkaraboudjan he lied to her about what the problem was, both by saying that he'd disabled a malfunctioning autopilot but then inexplicably turning it back on again quietly later, and also by continuing to be unable to maintain an altitude or heading long after the "problem" with the autopilot had been fixed. The actual problem, which he never admitted to, was that he's not competent to fly that plane in IMC.
@@cjbprime ever flown an old twin or anything with a really old AP? They're dodgy AF and known to malfunction, disconnecting isn't just going to be as simple as a circuit breaker as wing level and ALT hold, HDG are on different circuits and they're known to malfunction and argue. It can be as simple as runaway trim. Anyway, neither of us knows the full story so I'm not going to just knee jerk and blame the pilot.
When things go wrong in IMC and tunnel vision sets in, its very dangerous. Simple tasks become complex, scan suffers and task saturation never goes away.
I really question if pilot was IFR Rated? Sounds too dependent on autopilot.
He was most likely rated and probably current. Proficient? Not so much.
That immediate drop from 3,600 to 900 feet.......
So glad they made it and well done ATC.
Finally a great job by ATC for thinking ahead and being helpful rather than nagging for irrelevant information.
Im glad the pilot didn't try to "pretend" that he could fix it himself he released he could not do it alone and accepted the help from ATC besides the controller being very helpful
Now THAT is how it's done!! Great job by everyone!
Would all traffic controllers handle this so perfectly? She seems to understand / empathize with what’s going on in the cockpit in addition to her ATC duties
yeah. she picked it up early too. nice job
@@jamescollier3 Yeah, identifying that there was a problem straight away and that she needed to take charge so was the key thing. Most controllers can support a pilot in an emergency competently when the pilot says they have an emergency and need help, but I'm not sure how common this level of proactivity is.
Definitely not , this was exceptional. It’s like every other field in life some controllers are excellent some are competent. Some are familiar with aircraft some have no idea what goes in in the cockpit.
Among other things, ATC telling in a calm demenor to stabilize aircraft before turning or climbing to a confused pilot saved his life
Well done ATC! That’s very scary situation for any pilot!
As a pilot that was superbly handled by ATC. She didn't task saturate him with freq changes and behind the scenes obviously communicated swiftly and quickly with colleagues in Centre to contact the airport and set everything up for him as best she could. Love the calls on field location from roll out on heading. Pilot did great to, scary stuff in VMC let alone in IMC.
What a GREAT controller! !! !!!
Great job all around!
Hope Juan Brown picks this up. Great training situation.
Excellent ATC guidance!
Excellent job by the ATC there
Crazy how calm he sounded while flying the plane like that. I wonder if the autopilot wouldn't turn off or something or if he was just insanely disoriented
That ATC is all class. He deserves an award for transmission clarity and professionalism under pressure.
She.
Hopefully we get a deep dive on this from the blancolirio channel
great job, ATC, as usual👏👏
This is the ATC I would like to speak to when I'm in trouble!
That was a crazy one. ATC did a great job, and the pilot remained pretty damned calm sounding given that he was having so much trouble maintaining altitude or direction.
Nice work by the ATC
I'm just glad the pilot landed safely. Kudos to ATC for clutching that situation.
I’d really like to know more about what was happening on/in that plane.
This guy sounds like he has no business being in the pointy end of a light twin by himself in IMC. "The autopilot just went out of wack" - ok. Well if you're instrument proficient, you should be able to at least hand fly the airplane up to a safe altitude, then fly an approach an land. The multiple upsets and near collisions with terrain are not indicative of someone who has an instrument rating or who is instrument current. Kudos to ATC for stepping up and saving this guy's life as well as the lives of everyone onboard.
Pilot did very ok as well! He went aviating instead of focussing on communication!
This pilot must practices flying without A/P...just turn it off and take a deep breath and continue flying...Don´t be panic
Rodeo time! Great job bringing him in.
Great job ATC!! Saved their life 1000000%
No tower when I learned to fly at SBP, awesome ATCAssistance there now though! Great job!
As others said this ATC is something special for sure. Very skilled
*1CB DECLARING AN EMERGENCY* We declared one for you 20 minutes ago 😮😊
Told him about it too, I don't think he noticed.
ATC is on the ball! Well done ma’am!
ATC should be proud of herself. It's certain that she saved lives.
Gid damn. That ATC did an excellent job. Saved their lives. Kudos to her.
I think it's a him
Def a her. She is sitting right next to me.
As much as people are blaming the incompetency of the pilot, note that once he got the airport in sight, he had much more control and calmed down enough to land. It seems like whatever AP failure may have occurred (idk the systems of this aircraft to know what may have happened mechanically), the pilot kicked it off while startled in IMC, and there may even have been some spatial disorientation at play. Flying IFR is no joke, and you really have to be prepared for it, and it seems like he may not have been. Rule number one for using autopilot: if you can't do the flight yourself, don't ask the autopilot to do it for you
I don't think he was incompetent. At least to me, it sounded like when he started having issues with the autopilot, it kind of threw him off and he got behind the plane. Also, I'm wondering if the issue was really the autopilot and not something else with flight controls. At least at one point, he mentioned being unable to maintain altitude. Sadly, without anything in the cockpit to show us what was going on, we'll never know.
@@jackielinde7568 that's not entirely true. The NTSB can still investigate the systems, including where various switches and controls were at the time of landing, and they can get some good pilot interviews too
@@jackielinde7568 that's not entirely true. The NTSB can still investigate the systems, including where various switches and controls were at the time of landing, and they can get some good pilot interviews too
A crusty old CFI used to tell me exactly the same line
I think you'd be losing 50% of commercial 'pilots' if that was the case! 😂
She saved that man's life
Controller did a fantastic job!
Just to clarify, this was only an emergency because the pilot was not capable of controlling the airplane at all. He needs more instruction and more time flying in real IMC in that airplane. He also needs to listen to this audio and hear how he constantly missed things because he was stepping on ATC. Nothing important on the airplane was malfunctioning. If you can't recognize the problem, continue to fly by hand, then diagnose the issue once you're enroute and workload has decreased, then you just shouldn't be flying. Again, the important thing here is not so much the shop time to fix the autopilot. They need to get the pilot out of rotation and into some additional training immediately.
That’s my front yard. Lots of mountains around. That guy is so lucky he didn’t run into the side of one.
if autopilot wasn't working why did he turn it right back on?
because of arrogance i guess
Control issues in IMC is terrifying. Great job ATC!
Should practice flying without the auto pilot once in a while
@@chrisstaples182 We don't know if it was just poor hand flying skills with an unexpected autopilot system failure, or an actual control issue in IMC. In either case the pilot survived it so he did better than some when things goes wrongs.
@TheFlyingZulu it was an autopilot malfunction.....which they are clearly reliant on, and became flustered when they had to actually fly the aircraft in imc. It's a classic case really and happens often these days
@@chrisstaples182 But you don't actually know if there were any other control issues with the aircraft. Any control malfunction in IMC would fluster a single pilot operation. More so if it the manual controls were also malfunctioning.
@TheFlyingZulu he was controlling thr aircraft fine once he got his shit together tho. He was fine in vmc, it was in IMC he had all his problems. If it was a control issue, no way he would have made it
ATC did a great job saving the guy's bacon. He will have some explanation to do exactly what happened there. An AP acting up can surely create a major temporary distraction, but should not result in continued misalignment with ATC instructions.
Wow, that was tense. Glad it worked out ok
OMG ATC saved his life! Well done - kudos for ATC!!!!
Important to remember that there were two passengers and two dogs here and one take off had already been abandoned due to a door not being closed properly. It sounded obvious that this pilot was not very experienced and should not have been taking passengers out if not able to fly without an auto pilot. I thought that was basic airmanship? Regardless of system failures (?) the flightpath was almost comical, if there weren't real lives at risk.
If you don't understand how to operate the door on the airplane (which admittedly is not as simple as a car door, because it's a pressurized airplane, but it's not THAT complicated) what are the odds that you understand how to work the autopilot? I recognize the stress level of someone who's internal gyros are not agreeing with the instruments. The controller was what we used to call a Steely Eyed Missileman (The highest praise for coolness under pressure). The pilot was in the shark infested deep end and not keeping up with the basic tasks of keeping the blue side up on the attitude indicator and a positive rate of climb. Everyone in that airplane is lucky to be alive.
Amazing job by ATC
Rushed to this comment section to see if the well-deserved appreciation for this ATC was here, and it was. Felt like a kid on Christmas morning running to see if Santa came.
She saved his live.
ATC did a great job. If the autopilot was the problem, part of the checklist would be to pull the breaker. If he can’t hand fly in IMC, he doesn’t belong there. It’s not simple, but isn’t all that hard, either.
Maybe the nature of the issue was such that there were control pressures due to bad rigging or servos or something and the pilot had to constantly fight against the airplane to keep it under control while also trying to set up a return to the airport.
It seems like him just being bad at hand flying might not be it.
Wow, shout out ATC ❤️