Expensive mistake

[David Meiland]

There are a lot of private pilots around here. Many live here and keep planes at the airport, others fly in from all over the region when the weather is nice. My neighbor has a plane he flies out of his field, and often comes in right over my house.

Every year we have a few incidents. Most are not fatal, a few are. Here's the first one for this year--all on board walked away.

[Overbuilders]

Ouch. How close to your house?

[David Meiland]

That's over on another island, maybe ten miles away.

It might be wrong to use the word "mistake" in the title here. I know that road and it's remarkable that he put it down there and walked. Good flying.

[David Meiland]

There's a local guy with one of these planes--they appear to cost about $300,000 and they're not what Grandma takes to church on Sunday. A month or so back he was flying near the airport as I walked one of my dogs on a trail parallel to the runway. He dove down to within about 30 feet of the runway and went screaming along without landing, I would guess at about 200 MPH. Doubt it's legal but it looks fun.

[Livin'theDream]

That does look like fun, even just sitting there.

[slimpickens]

David, your neck of the woods sure looks awesome -- plane crashes notwithstanding. I can't believe I've lived in Portland for over 20 years and have never been to the San Juans. Need any help for a couple weeks? ;)

[Dick Seibert]

David:

That first plans is an A36 Beechcraft Bonanza, we pilots call them "Split Tailed Doctor Killers". Nice planes by the way it also comes in a straight tailed version with an excellent safety record, for those who can use rudder pedals, they must cost about a million new now, you can buy a good 10 year-old one for about $400,000.

[dgbldr]

The Extra 300 is a favorite of top aerobatic pilots as well as amateurs with money. Some with more money than brains.

There is nothing illegal about flying 200mph, even close to the deck. The only speed limit is 250 knots indicated below 10,000 ft. However, flying aerobatic maneuvers IS regulated and typically restricted to designated areas called "aerobatic training area", or as otherwise approved. Those are never ON an airport, unless it's part of an organized show.

So diving is definitely illegal on the airport, as an aerobatic maneuver, plus he can get busted for endangering himself/others, sort of the FAA catchall equivalent of reckless driving.

[davenorthup]

Dick - I have heard of the "doctor killers" before. We do not have too many low wing planes flying around here.

I posted this before but it is appropriate for the thread.

This guy ditched it in the alder, we drained all the fluids and got it ready for the helicopter to sling it to town - this happened in the bush - no roads...

Plane was rebuilt I think.

[davenorthup]

A few more......

[davenorthup]

It is outta there. They flew less than 100 miles and had to land 1/2 way to refuel the copter. They cached the fuel on the way down.

[David Meiland]

The guy with the Extra is a pilot for one of the local outfits, I think he flies charters but not scheduled routes. When I saw him he was flying south, fairly high, parallel to the runway and maybe a tenth of a mile offset, just screaming along at top speed. He did a really steep banking dive, came around 180 degrees, pulled up just before crashing on the end of the runway, flew the length of the runway (3400') just barely off the deck, and then pulled up very steeply at the end, almost vertical for a short period, then climbed out. With no one to supervise the airport on a Sunday afternoon he can get away with it, I guess.

Here's a plane I've seen a few times recently--a Cessna 510 "very light jet" that seats maybe 3 or 4 + pilots. It has a hangar here. They pull up in front of the hangar, a few people get out and go inside, open the door, drive out in big SUVs. Then the pilots use some sort of motorized device like a pallet jack to grab the front wheel and push the plane backwards into the hangar. Then they drive away in another vehicle. I assume that putting up the pilots in town until you're ready to leave is part of the cost.

I've seen other small jets land, and they come in very fast compared to this one, which appears to glide nicely at the same ~60MPH approach speed that the small prop planes use. From what I've read these start at about $3M.

[David Meiland]

Need any help for a couple weeks? ;)

Got any trowel skills? I want to try to get a fieldstone chimney on my house this summer. I've been keeping an eye out for an underemployed mason.

[davenorthup]

When I saw him he was flying south, fairly high, parallel to the runway and maybe a tenth of a mile offset, just screaming along at top speed.

2 summers ago we were across the street from the runway and saw a small 737 approaching. That is a big deal in Homer since we rarely see a jet, let alone one that size.

This thing did about 7 consecutive touch and go's - pounding our eardrums blasting our town for about 30 minutes.

Never figured out the reason, who owned the plane or why it's pilots were doing touch and go's. For a plane that size it is much cheaper to do that training in a simulator. They burned a lot of fuel.

[Dick Seibert]

David:

N58EX was flown to a second place finish by a guy named Tom Rhodes from Dallas Texas in the 2004 Tequila cup in the Sportsman's Division. If you notice spots 4 & 5 were taken by Great Lakes planes, that's one of the planes that I flew when I was doing aerobatics, I learned in a Citabria Super Decathlon, the plane that Steve Fossett met his end in, a very forgiving airplane, he had to have been caught in a horrible downdraft with his gliding skills. BTW, the call letters starting with "N" indicate that it is registered in the United States, and we refer to them as the "N numbers".

From the picture of the Citation jet I see Allan has been up to visit you? The "some sort of motorized device like a pallet jack" is called a "Tug", I've still got mine.

Dave:

The term "Ditch" refers to ditching in water, I guess if you go down on land it's just a crash, of if really bad it's you "bought the farm", I guess this stems from the old days when a pilot went down in a farmers' field he had to pay the farmer for the damaged crops, but now "bought the farm" means the end, you can only buy the farm once now.

The reason you don't see low wing planes much up there is that bush planes need high wings to not only clear obstacles but also for the pilot to be able to see the ground under him while taking off and landing to avoid ruts, rocks, tree limbs, and other small obstacles. Those "fat" tires are called "Tundra Tires" for use in the bush, they are like balloons and can handle off-road stuff, but they slow you down, actually good for landing to shorten the roll-out, bad for take-off when you need to get off as soon as possible.