----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- What was it I said about the only truly fearless people being children......and Spook?
Larry Georgia Trehey wrote: > ----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- > > Regarding Mary's message - > > The pleasure and honor was mine. And Mary is the one who deserves the > praise. Mary is a hell of a good pilot and I am so impressed with her. > She handled the emergency so calmly and skillfully. > > Dummy me took me a little while to realize there was a problem. I have > never been in a plane landing on grass so I didn't know how it was supposed to > feel. I just figured the roughness and jostling was because of the uneven > surface. About the time her plane started sliding and skidding sideways, I > got a clue that something wasn't right. And at that moment Mary calmly > told me she had lost a landing gear. Of course she lost her brakes too. Thank > goodness for the cushioning and stopping capability of the tall grass and > wild blackberry bushes. > > After we came to a stop, Mary and I sat in her plane discussing the > matter. I guess there is no way we could have expected that the folks at > the Fly-in wouldn't notice! :-) Our host, Bob Saville, came running over > with his fire extinguisher and a worried look. Then a bunch of the other > guys came on over too. > > The consensus seems to be that the metal had a stress fracture and was > just waiting to break. I'm positive it was getting ready to go and in > light of this, it couldn't have happened at a better place in a better > way. We had landed and taken off from Eugene before we went back to > Walker. Eugene is a fairly large, towered airport. Thank goodness it > didn't happen there! I think it would have been a lot worse. Mary said > that even if it happened at the small airport where she keeps her plane > (Creswell), it would have been pretty bad. She said that she probably > would have slid into some other folks' planes that are tied down to the > left of the runway. > > If the right gear had gone at Walker, it would have been bad also. She > might have run into one of the hangers or the line of beautiful coupes. > I don't want to think about the possibilities if the nose gear went! So it > couldn't have happened in a better way. She and I didn't get a scratch. > The rest of the day, she apologized to me several times. But she had > nothing to apologize for. It really was mechanical failure, not pilot error. > She did everything perfectly. > > I feel so bad for her. She has already spent a bunch on her plane this > year. All she needs is to have to pay out more. Seeing her poor > little plane in the weeds, with her left wing on the ground was too sad to > bear. And it's not my plane. I know Mary felt awful. Good thing her > finance and the rest of us were there for moral support. > > I learned later that her fiance, upon seeing us about to land, said to > the other folks, "Let's grade Mary on her landing." Bob was in the back > of one of the hangers and wasn't watching but he could hear. Bob said the > next thing he heard after the fiance's statement was, "She blew a landing > gear." Bob, thinking the speaker was joking around, said, "Yeah, right." > Then another man said, "Does anybody have a fire extinguisher?" At that > point Bob realized that the observers weren't joking around any more and > went running out of the hanger with the extinguisher. > > You now know, "the rest of the story". > > Footnote: Obviously I'm unhappy that Mary's plane is damaged and I wish > it hadn't happened for her sake. But for me, I think it was a good thing > as a student pilot. I got to observe an excellent pilot dealing with an > emergency. I was also happy to discover that I remained calm. In fact, my > heart rate wasn't even speeded up. It's a validation of my decision to > pursue flying. Mary and some of the other people were worried that this > "incident" may have dampened my enthusiasm for flying. No way! I'm more > determined than ever. I learned some valuable lessons yesterday. > > Georgia aka Spook > > __________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > ___________________________________________________________ > T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 > Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics __________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
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