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From: good@pixar (Never tell your copilot "Cheer up" during the takeoff roll.)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Out to dry on the glideslope
Message-ID: <2473@pixar.pixar>
Date: Fri, 14-Feb-86 18:07:04 EST
Article-I.D.: pixar.2473
Posted: Fri Feb 14 18:07:04 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Feb-86 04:29:27 EST
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California
Lines: 28
Keywords: IFR glideslope safety


	I assume that most of you are aware of the 152 which tangled with
the power lines on final at Ontario the other night.  For those who don't
know anything about it, nobody was hurt even though both men hung upside
down for four hours.  The plane dangled 80 feet off the ground by the propeller
hub and the nose gear.

	My instructor has access to "inside" information on accident
investigations and he called me a few minutes ago (ostensibly to tell me
that the plane I use is available all day today -- during the biggest storm
to hit the Bay Area this year.  Do all instructors have such a sense of
humor?) and told me what seems to have happened.

	Directional radio, such as localizers, glideslopes, etc, have false
"lobes" on either side of the real beam.  There can be several such lobes.
Evidently the 152 in question, while on an night IFR training flight, was
flying one of the lobes underneath the GS on approach.  Thus they could have
had the needle nailed to the bullseye and still tangled with the power line.

	Even if this was not the case, it is a good time to remind yourself
of the good practice of checking your altitude at approach fixes, and
especially as you cross the outer marker.  The altitude at which the GS crosses
the outer marker is plainly visible on your approach plate.  Use it!

	Yours for more airports and fewer power lines,

			--Craig
		...ucbvax!pixar!good