But so glad to hear they all survived!!

Thank you for using my pictures from the previous thread, fairly intelligent discussion regarding it.  Wx at the time was a high overcast. Near the departure is KRHP, it was 4800' overcast with an elevation of 1699' so appx 6500'MSL.  Then just east of the ridge is K1A5, 5000' overcast and elevation of 2034' so appx 7000'MSL. The question will be why he was at the altitude he was, he went slightly north, not a direct track to avoid higher terrain but the very last part of the ridge he ended up crossing it at the highest elevation in the area at appx 5120', the area he was following was 2500-4000'.  His altitude and airspeed were stable for appx 5 minutes prior to the ridge so he clearly was happy with what he had selected. 

More than likely didnt realize how high the last ridge was combined with his track unforturnately taking him right over the top of a high peak.  I'm guessing the HTAWS was inhibited due to nuisance alarms flying in that area, and didnt have foreflight updated to his current track to get an updated HOE in the profile view.  The overcast combined with an area of zero ground lighting has the NVGs struggling to see the peak ahead is obscuring the beginning of the lights of the town of Franklin.  

Its also important looking at the data that its raw pressure alt from the ADSB, altimeter setting was 30.16 that night so you have to add 240' feet to what you see.  The scary part is if he had a moments notice of what was about to happen and started to pull back and during the course of the correction the aircraft started to hit the trees or is he just talking to crew and looking down and suddenly the sounds of trees hitting the airframe and seeing trees going past the side windows gets him to grab the controls and pull up and out of it before the aircraft got pulled in.  

Included another shot of just how close he was to not hitting the ridge, just slightly different track and he misses it entirely.

I will give you this though, he intially climbed to 5300' before coming right back down to 4800' where he stayed for the rest of the leg, there is always a chance the hills have different wx than whats reported on the opposite sides.  But he kept his speed up and stable the whole way enjoying a nice tail wind and doesnt look like a guy hunting and pecking his way through the hills, I dont think he had any idea his altitude was going to be a problem.

While it isn't the NTS or the FAA, the local Sheriff stated that the aircraft struck trees crossing the Burningtown Bald.  Check around the 1:50 mark in the following news report

I fly with them up if I'm enroute waaay above highest obstacle, in the city, or IFR.  At any time I need to check visibility I flip them down.  

I fly with them down on descent and almost always on approach.  Unless you're in an urban environment that you are very familiar with.  

Whether you are flipping your NVGs up and down or looking around them, you have to do both to see LED tower lights and pad lights.  

I see some guys log 100% of their night time as NVG and don't believe it, but by all means, do your thing.  

We aren't still in the Army and flying in zero illum down creeks, and maintaining x amount of feet above highest obstacle is not a suggestion in HAA.  See 135.615.  

When in doubt chicken out because its freaking scary under sinking clouds at night with no options other than climb/confess or press on and hope things turn out ok.  

NVG/TAWS/RADALTs are great.  Not hitting the ground is the goal.  

The ground remains undefeated.  

gut was Scud running???https://www.asias.faa.gov/apex/f?p=100:96:9221206761433::::P96_ENTRY_DATE,P96_MAKE_NAME,P96_FATAL_FLG:13-MAR-23,ROBINSON

So I'm a little slow, are we saying that this was a CFIT accident?

Short answer, yes. Clipped the tree tops, lost the left half of the horizontal stab, both skid tubes and some manor of damage to the lower right half of the fenestron.  Managed to pull up, got slow, entered a tight turn/yaw to the right for probably a single 360 before dumping the nose and flying away.  Managed to decend and get down to the first available open area to land but certainly had some form of control problems due to damage to the fenestron.  Looks like the fenestron was still spinning but broke off some parts of the housing around it and lost alot of effectiveness so the last part of flight which was not captured by ADSB was probably terrifying but he at least kept it upright, probably had to fight it as he wasnt able to get into the open fields around the road but came through the trees to the road.  

Is it upsetting that he flew it into the top of a hill? Yes.  Thankfully he managed not to get sucked deeper into the tree tops and didnt lose control directly after the strike and end up spinning in to the trees in the middle of no where.  He then managed to get his damaged aircraft back down to the ground keeping it upright and limiting the impact.

the "It's okay to text while flying because..autopilot" guy.

right side kid tube still there

seriously lol

Not the same accident as stated, I used that picture in another thread to show what normally happens to the skids during a vertical impact vs what the Erlanger ships look like.  Erlanger the you can see where the saddle mount is where the skid tube would have attached to it and its gone but based on the impact you would expect to see it still attached.  Both long boarding steps made it and are visible but neither of the tubes unless they folded under the aircraft when it went through the trees and then are under the belly during the vertical impact.  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MBMptqitqig. 

Video has been restricted.