I find reading about accidents informative. I think all of these aircraft are great planes.

For the Cessna 441 there have been 23 accidents since 1998:

4 disorientation/loss of control during flight
7 landing loss of control/gear failure
1 engine related
2 controlled flight into terrain
9 other (2 of which were crashed planes with lots of coke on board!)

The one conclusion I'm reaching is that landing is dangerous, although rarely fatal.

Nathan

Nate, how did you classify this one? Seems like it should be loss of control or Engine related? New MU2 pilot shut down an engine and lost control.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=162043

On a recurrent with John Elford we went at altitude as I wanted to try to torque roll my TBM 700 C2 at the time.
We tried 4 times, slowed it down to 90 at idle, jammed full throttle.
No way this TBM wanted to torque roll for me. Maybe if your at stall speed uncoordinated, but we couldn't make it torque roll at 90 kts.
OWT to me.

Nathan, I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with for Merlin accidents. It is a bit of a chore to seperate them from Metro accidents. What I have found is mostly runway excursions.

didn't that fella torque roll one at College Park? Took the insurance money, bought a phenom and finished the job a few years later.
I'm thinking we can chalk those two incidents up to worst pilot that side of the mississippi

I think I put that under "other" although I guess I need a category for "stupid pilot tricks." I wasn't exactly sure how to categorize it since there was nothing wrong with the engine and he didn't exactly get disoriented and lose control. Apparently one of the more common mistakes in a multi, though, at least according to my MU-2 instructor.

Nathan

My theory is owner flown airplanes are probably going to see more spatial d accidents. In my experience hand flying in IMC is a skill which atrophies relatively quickly. I fly 100ish hours a year and outside of training very very little of that is IMC outside of a/p controlled cruise. Even if I hand flew every arrival and departure it wouldn't be enough to stay current.

I go to Simcom once a year and fly under the hood 4-6 times a year to combat it. I'm guessing many don't.

Right now we focus on currency very generally and mostly related to legal currency. It would make more sense to break things into dangerous tasks and track currency in those to me. Top of the list would be hand flying in IMC and IMC go arounds.

Could only find 13 accidents in all types of Merlins since 1998.

0 disorientation/loss of control during flight
8 landing loss of control/gear failure
1 engine related (caught fire during taxi)
1 controlled flight into terrain
3 other

That's the last type, I promise, was able to do this while waiting for simulations to run but they are finished.

Nathan

"sold" and "flying" are not the same thing.

Where can one buy a 2016 MU2?

But that's the difference- slow it down another 10 knots or so, maybe 20, trim the nose up a lot more, and try it again. Maybe pull back extra on the yoke to "simulate" bad pilot control inputs. Of course, don't actually do that. But you're right- a real life torque roll loss of control is very likely accompanied by an uncoordinated stall (stall with the ball out to one side).

The first two things are bad pilot mistakes that nobody intentionally does; the third thing I wouldn't recommend because departing controlled flight at max power puts a lot of stress on the propeller system- the combination of torque and gyroscopic effects puts a lot of stress on the bearings (not to mention intentional aerobatics are probably not approved for that type).

That's the Inhofe accident.

It was literally his very first solo in the plane after completing an initial SFAR program. Weather was super good.

The web page you linked says:

Pilot inadvertently shutoff LH engine during approach.

That is a possible cause, but the evidence for that is very circumstantial. The NTSB found a particular valve closed and may have concluded the valve was closed electrically (via the switch some think the pilot used mistakenly) but it also closes mechanical via the condition lever feather stop (which we know was used because the prop was feathered). So the position of the valve doesn't clearly indicate a mistake by the pilot.

For the record, the NTSB did not say the pilot had shutdown the engine inadvertently. Their findings:

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to

The pilot's loss of airplane control during a known one-engine-inoperative condition. The reasons for the loss of control and engine shutdown could not be determined because the airplane was not equipped with a crash-resistant recorder and postaccident examination and testing did not reveal evidence of any malfunction that would have precluded normal operation.

The pilot made one major mistake, leaving the gear down. Had he raised the gear, it should have been no problem.

I will note that I flew this accident scenario in my plane, left the gear down, and I was able to climb. Inhofe had a -10 equipped K model which is virtually identical to my -10 equipped M model. So even leaving the gear down is still survivable, though with less margin.

It is entirely possible Inhofe flipped the wrong switch and shut off fuel to the left hand engine. I don't think so, however, because the error would have generally turned off BOTH engines (the proper action was to turn off tip fuel transfer). The right engine did not fail, so both switches were not actuated, which is inconsistent with switch misuse. The "wrong switch" cause has been promoted by Mitsubishi folks as the reason, however.

The NTSB emphasized the lack of evidence, perhaps with the idea the pilot's father, a Senator, would push for getting more FDR like devices in aircraft.

Mike C.

That's what I remember. But it was at Gaithersburg GAI not College Park CGS. College park would be a bit short for either plane. I've got my Pin there and it's a bit short for the Baron but doable.

I wouldn't mind if you kept going, great info, thanks!

I wouldn't mind if you kept going, great info, thanks!

The landing loss of control issues are likely due to poor use of nose wheel steering and the fact that main gear are further apart than the nose gear to main gear distance. You really want to get it under control with differential thrust first and when slowed down use the NWS.