New Crash Investigations Flight Posted

This flight is the difficult approach to Steamboat Springs that resulted in a crash on February 13.  Watch the video linked on the description page from Blancolirio for details about the actual ill-fated flight.  I tried the flight in daylight, but with rain and poor visibility.  I did the short flight (KDEN-KSBS) but set my cruise altitude at 12500.  My flight ended abruptly when I crashed into the mountains.  I was flying the TBM930 so the crash and the emergency locator alarm was quite startling.  Anyway, I reset the flight for a second attempt, this time at an altitude of 15000.  I was using the VNAV approach to Rwy 32 as the ill-fated aircraft was believed to be using.  Fortunately, in the daylight, and with clouds parting at that altitude, my Garmin brought me lower and lower where I could see the mountain ridgeline.  I was waiting for the last minute to take control to over fly the mountain when my Garmin seemed to raise my altitude to about 9000 feet, clearing the mountain,  It seemed to stop descending at that point, and I had to take control of the aircraft for the rapid descent to the runway once I was clear of the mountain.  I've yet to try this flight at night with limited visibility, but I can only imagine it must be terrifying if flown in a real plane - especially with the PAPI lights and runway end lights not working.  Yikes.

Pick a plane and give this one a try if you want a challenge, and an understanding of what these guys were facing.

The flight description is in the Bush Ops->Crash Investigation area from the main menu.  You may need to clear browser cache if it doesn't appear, or use the direct link below.

www.stpaulairlines.com/Bush-Operations/C...oatSprings.php#start

Happy flying,
John

Smitty,

Thanks for sharing your experience with Steamboat Springs. Blancolirio just added another video stating that the FAA just released a NOTAM that the RNAV approach to Rwy 32 is no longer authorized.