On Jun 4, 10:04 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
Here in Iowa City. One person -- the child being transported for medical
care -- perished. Read more he http://tinyurl.com/6dxct8

It's too soon to say for sure, but it appears the pilot attempted to depart
into stormy weather, apparently with a gusty tail wind. It rained extremely
hard here right before we heard the sirens, and the AWOS history indicates a
dramatic wind shift.

A TBM-850 is a very capable turboprop aircraft, and it was being flown by a
very experienced Angel Flight (like, 57 flights) pilot. Using the
aircraft's POH and the AWOS history, another pilot has determined that the
TBM would've needed something like 4200 feet to get airborne, given the
tailwind. Unfortunately, Rwy 30 is only 3900 feet long.

The article reports that the crash was "shortly before 10:08
a.m." (CDT). Wind at that time was 10023G36. If the pilot took off
from runway 30 with that kind of tailwind, it's no wonder he crashed.

The reported address of the crash site is just off the departure end
of runway 30 (map: http://tinyurl.com/6coeyb). But nothing in the
article says the departure was from runway 30. Perhaps the pilot took
off from runway 12, had partial engine failure, and tried to circle
back to land. (There are survivors, including the pilot, so we'll
probably find out.)

METARs ( http://tinyurl.com/69psdj):

METAR KIOW 031452Z AUTO 10025G31KT 2 1/2SM RA BR FEW007 BKN026 OVC034
14/14 A2957 RMK AO2 PK WND 11031/1452 TSE19 PRESFR SLP010 P0042 60202
T01440139 58015

SPECI KIOW 031504Z AUTO 10023G36KT 5SM -RA BR BKN021 14/14 A2951 RMK
AO2 PK WND 10036/1503 LTG DSNT NE AND SE PRESFR P0001

SPECI KIOW 031512Z AUTO 09023G36KT 7SM SCT025 14/14 A2945 RMK AO2 PK
WND 10036/1507 LTG DSNT E RAE12 PRESFR P0001