Sadly, Cirrus Accident Friday

[Bill Greenwood]

Friday evening a Cirrus was lost 15 miles north of Glenwood Springs which is 42 miles north of Aspen. It was fatal for 2 adults and 2 children. They left Loveland, Ft. Collins going to Moab,Utah and were perhaps halfway. I have been a pilot here for 36 years, and Ive done Mt Flying forums at Oshkosh, Sun N Fun, etc. My 3 main points are1 Have enough airplane, thus is service ceiling high enough, 2 Fly in good weather, 3. Fly safer routes not necessarily direct over highest terrain.
Their SR22TC was certainly enough plane, and they were on the route I would go, the had passed Eagle airport, 30 miles back, had Rifle 30 miles ahead and Glenwood just to their south. So that leaves weather. I dont know about it yet, I do know that it was raining with low clouds Sat morning. I had flown the first part of the route , Boulder to Eagle and on to Aspen Fri afternoon, clouds were no problem there was some turbulence, continuous light not really moderate.
Sure hate to see this and especially with a family and kids, No info as to why they didnt use parachute or if it was attempted. Report says ATC lost contact with them so my guess is they may have been on an ifr fight plan. If so the MEA there is 16,000. Highest terrain is likely about 13,000.

[Bill Greenwood]

It seems like there were thunderstorms at some places in the genearal area then, but we dont know the time of the accident.

[Scooper]

More details on Kathryn's Report:

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2017/0...tember-16.html

[Frank Giger]

Very sad, and condolences to the family.

Low clouds after the wreck made recovery initially impossible, so the ugly possibility of CFIT is on the table.

It's too early to know what happened. Since he was talking to ATC, he might have been flying IFR to start with; it's not mentioned either way (not that we can expect a news reporter to know what either VFR or IFR flight is, let alone the difference).

[Bill Greenwood]

Frank, the low clouds were the next morning, I havent been able to find out what time contact was lost Fri night, so probable time of accident. I have called the sheriff's dept , no one seems to know, and Ive left my number. When I flew by there, 30 miles east of there over Eagle on the way home about 3pm that afternoon the weather was good vfr, kind of windy but not dangerous. It was vmc at bedtime that night and raining and overcast at daybreak Sat morning.
There can be no situation that hurts more deeply than loss of precious children. We flew all over the country with our two boys, including Oshkosh etc, that liitlte boy could be my Son. We were very careful of weather, never really had any emergency, once had to land due to smoke of a fire. I would probably have made the trip these folks were trying to make given the weather I saw.
Love your kids, never spank or hit one, try to never raise your voice, and thank God every minute that you get to spend with them. The great thing about kids is they have love in them, they havent yet learned hatred and evil from adults.

[CHICAGORANDY]

Sincere condolences to the Makepeace family and friends.