Beyond Tiki, Bilge, and Test / Beyond Tiki / What flirts with death have you had
Post #117457 by PolynesianPop on Fri, Oct 1, 2004 8:37 AM
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PolynesianPop
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Fri, Oct 1, 2004 8:37 AM
This happened to me about 12 years ago. An old friend of mine is a licensed private pilot. We used to fly up and down Southern California all the time -- San Diego or Palm Springs, etc for lunch, even Las Vegas for a couple of days. It was something we did every Friday usually in a single engine Piper Arrow or Cessna 149. Well, on one of our trips we had trouble. We were flying up the coast in a Piper Arrow to Santa Barbara when at about 5800 feet over Oxnard we lost all power to the motor. Now, if you've ever flown in a single engine plane you know how loud the motor is so when the power on the motor went out, it got deftly silent and the plane was now just gliding. My buddy called right into the tower and told them what just happened . Sitting in the co-pilot chair (I also had a radio headset on) I could hear the whole conversation: My buddy Joel - "Tower we've lost power to our engine." Joel then turns to me and tells me to start looking for a freeway or a golf course. Tower then returns with, "How many souls are on board?" I thought, "What?! Souls?!!!" They think we're gonna die! Joel stayed cool and calm - "2 souls" At this point, Camarillo (airport) didn't want to handle us (I'm guessing that they didn't want the liability in case we didn't make it) and they and Oxnard argued about it until we got passed back to Oxnard (we found this out later after we landed the plane). So needless to say, my buddy Joel navigated the plane to Oxnard Airport. As we approached the runway, I noticed there was an ambulance and two firetrucks waiting for us to land (I guess in case there was a problem landing and someone gets injured). We came in twice as fast and a little higher than normal because he was afraid we would lose altitude before we made it to the airport. But -- we landed. When Joel stopped the plane, a driver ran up to his window and asked if we needed a taxi to which he confirmed (our engine was dead). Our plane was then taxied to a hanger. We ended up spending most of our day in Oxnard Airport that afternoon while we waited for a Cessna 149 to be flown out to us (from Brackett Field in Pomona, our point of origin). The FAA began an investigation on the whole incident (standard practice whenever an emergency landing is involved). While this happened, we noticed the local Channel 4 and Channel 2 news and their field reporters doing a "live report." Of course, we were not allowed to talk to them (FAA regulations do not permit anyone involved to speak to the media until the investigation has been completed). We later found out that the block of the motor cracked and a piston shot out. The mechanic told us we were lucky we got the plane down and commended my buddy Joel for getting us down safely. We flew home late that afternoon after our Cessna arrived and lost our whole trip to Santa Barbara. The following weekend we flew over 30 miles of ocean to Catalina Island for a day, had some lunch and laughed about the whole thing. My buddy Joel is now living in Las Vegas and flies for the California Highway Patrol (CHP) over the desert - he's a traffic pacer who looks for speeders! **Poly-Pop ***
He who dies with the most broken mugs WINS! [ Edited by: PolynesianPop on 2004-10-01 08:49 ] |
