Epic down in Columbia off Astoria Oregon PIX

After one too many beers, Sully's friend Jeff Dunham said, "Bet you can't frickin' do it again!!". End of story.

(Humor aside, glad to see / hear the two on board got out okay!)
 
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TangoWhiskey said:
After one too many beers, Sulley's friend Jeff Dunham said, "Bet you can't frickin' do it again!!". End of story.

(Humor aside, glad to see / hear the two on board got out okay!)
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One does have to wonder if landing in the river was inspired by Sully's feat.

That said, according to the newsies the plane was at 8000 MSL when the problem occurred. Unless there was a prop malfunction that significantly increased the drag I would think they could have glided to an airport. I wonder how far away they were?
 
gismo said:
One does have to wonder if landing in the river was inspired by Sully's feat.

That said, according to the newsies the plane was at 8000 MSL when the problem occurred. Unless there was a prop malfunction that significantly increased the drag I would think they could have glided to an airport. I wonder how far away they were?
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Well, they apparently landed near the pier. The airport appears to be just about on the shore. But yeah, it doesn't say where they were when they encountered the problem. A direct track to KSEA takes them across the river, then across a region that appears pretty well wooded, without a whole lot of airports. Their point of departure could have been the nearest airport.
 
Astoria was the destination for me in my first "long solo X/C" on my way to the PP-ASEL. Took off from Tacoma Narrows, went down to Astoria following I-5 southbound and the Columbia River westward; flew back up the coast to Ocean Shores/Hoquiam and then Hwy 101 back to "home base". What a pretty flight!!!

Grant's right though--not a lot of other places to go once you're out to Astoria and the Pacific Ocean.
 
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The newsies on KOMO TV were calling it a Cessna, not once but multiple times. Never seen a Cessna single with windows like that. "Small" plane, single engine, must be a Cessna. Idiots.

And Troy is right about the area they were to traverse between Astoria and Seattle. No good options if you lose the engine for quite a while there.
 
The pilot was Bill H (suppressed full name to keep it off Google); he was on board with his mother. Bill is a long-time Microsoft employee, very active in youth charities and such. A good guy. Glad this turned out well for them.

http://www.svpseattle.org/about/our-team/bill-henningsgaard-chair

Here's his Epic homebuilt build-log: http://www.mykitlog.com/billhe

There's an interesting blurb and picture on Epic's page, too:

http://www.epicaircraft.com/news.html

On Friday April 3, 2009 at 9:11am Bill Hxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx flew his Epic LT from Boeing Field, WA (KBFI) to Bend, OR (KBDN) achieving a straight and level speed of 516.35 mph.
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First flight video of the plane in question: http://www.ramblingclan.com/billhe/653SB/Day_One.wmv
 
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