This true story began September 24, 2013. I had won the Ebay auction of a 125-horsepower Piper Tri-Pacer and made arrangements with the owner to come to Manistee, Michigan, to get it.The trip involved a 16-hour bus ride.
I left a car at Clark Regional Airport in Jeffersonville, Indiana. My lady friend and I boarded a bus at 3 a.m. and settled in for the ride.
Sixteen hours later we were picked up in Cadillac, Michigan. Since it was late in the day, the owner gave us the logbooks to look over that evening. The next morning we went to the airport to see what I had won. I had pictures, but youall know that airplanes are photogenic. The farther away one gets the betterthey look. It turned out that this bird was a 10 on the outside and a nine inside.
The owner flew left seat for a couple of landings, and then I took over.The first four-place airplane I flew was a Tri-Pacer, so I had a pretty good idea of wherethe brakes, flaps, and trim crankwere, and how to start the engine. AfterI did a couple of landings and the owner thought I could handle the airplane, we went back into the hangar to sign the papers. After refueling we were on our way.
Manistee to Jeffersonville is 365 air miles. We made a fuel stop halfway in Plymouth, Indiana.Then we were cruising along at 2,200 rpm at about 3,000 feet, and my friend pulled out some crackers and other stuff, and we were having a grand old time until we were 72 miles from Jeffersonville.
I had once flown traffic in the Louisville, Kentucky, area and had an occasion when the engine started to bang. I landed at Standiford Field.A day and $2,000 later I was back in the air. A stuck exhaust valve on the number one cylinder was the culprit.
Getting back to the flight from Ply-mouth, I heard that same bang—only it continued to bang away. I said a short prayer, Lord, I need your help! I grabbed the GPS from the passenger side and hit GO TO. It responded with turn to 290 degrees and there was an airport 5.4 miles away. Now the engine was barely running. I pushed inthe mixture control that was reallyonly about a quarter of an inch out, not enough to make a difference. Ipushed the throttle in, the engine burped, and that was it. We were going down and that was the scene.
Fortunately, there was a huge soybean field right under us. I set up an 80-mph glide approach and skimmed the tops of the soybeans for about 500 yards. Oil began pouring out on the windshield. There was no forward visibility, but I wasn’t planning to make any turns anyway. We came to a stop with a thud and turned the switches off and took stock of where we were and what had happened.
Another pilot informed Indianapolis Approach that we did an off-airport landing. Then outwe went. I could shoot Mr. Piper for not putting a pilot-side door insome of his airplanes, because I couldn’t help my friend out. She was shaken up a little but not injured. After a hug and “thank you, Lord,” there we stood in the middle of this soybean field.
One cannot imagine what that engine looked like when the cowling was raised. Sitting on both sides of the top of the engine were chunks of aluminum castings the size of one’s fist with the camshaft sticking out the top. Oil was draining off the windshield. Sections of the nose cowl had holes and dents in it from the engine throwing metal out through the cowling holes and the propeller throwing some of them back. Other than that, the airplane was in good shape.
Meeting with the FAA representative the next day, he did not leave any stones unturned. I knew that he didn’t have anything on me because my flight review, medical, time in type, and frequency of flyingall were up to date.The outcome that everyone agreed upon was like the song says, “it was just one of those things.”
By theway, my passenger and Iwere both 83 years old at the time. Since then I have bought another 150-horsepower Tri-Pacer and we are back in the air.
Flight Lesson offers the opportunity for pilots to learn from the experiences of others.
