Cessna 310 ditches in the Ocean 13mi short

Do you think just poor planning on fuel consumption or maybe unexpectedly strong headwinds?

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When I saw this thread this morning I was thinking it was an Airbus 310

 

What's the range on a 310? I assume it must have had the wing tip aux fuel tanks.

So Cal to hawaii in a 310 sounds a bit adventurous.

 

He must have had a strap-in bladder.
i've flown a 310P and I sure don't recall having anywhere near that kind of range even with tip tanks....

 

Same thing happened on Magnum P.I. Season 3, episode 20 "Two birds of a Feather", landed right in RM's tidal pool.

Check for lead bars under the seat.

 

Wow. Actually an unbelievably good landing. And lucky....the alternative result could have been disastrous.

 

Let's look at the rough numbers....California to Hawaii...2400 miles. Average cruise of a 310....200mph. Imagine taking off and very quickly all you see on the horizon is water....FOR 12 HOURS.....Then land appears.....and you fall into the water 13 miles short. That's a bad day.

Geffen

 

I think a bad day would be when no one is following you in.

 

+1

 

An airline pilot on another forum said this guy had been figuring he wouldn't make it for about the last 4 hours-- they were relaying for him.

 

+1

Feel bad for owner. That's a nice plane. Nice landing, couldn't be better ( no wise cracks ) textbook perfect. Conditions looked pretty good too. Wings level so no kartwheeling, not into the waves, and retractable gear ( LG retracted ). Water landing in fixed gear planes are prone to flipping over....very disorienting.

That 12 HOURS OVER WATER makes you think things over carefully!

He must have done something like this before and was successful. Maybe over land involving the same distance and plane.

 

Interesting...I just read he was delivering the plane for someone as a plane ferrying service and it was registered to a Mount Pleasant company. That's just across the bridge from Charleston, SC.

 

He started out and turned around a couple of days before:

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N23BT/history/20111005/1530Z/KOAK/PHTO

He was going to Australia, according to a cached version of the ferry company's website.

 

So sad to see how close he was to scale.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N23BT/history/20111007/1300Z/KMRY/PHTO

That sucks, but he really did do a great job on the landing.

 

For 4 hours or more, he must have tried different altitudes looking for the best trade-off of headwind component vs. the affect of density altitude on fuel burn. He probably also tried different manifold pressure & RPM settings and aggressively leaning both engines trying to maximize his fuel endurance.

I wonder if he toyed with the idea of shutting down one engine while trying to cruise on the other one? Probably a bad idea given the increased drag of flying with a single engine running.

That's a long time to spend alone cursing at yourself for getting into such a situation.

 

If his altitude was about 7000 ft higher, he probably would have made land (10-1 glideslope ), to the beach at least.