Crazy. Guy had to feel the butterflies of a bad idea when he went full throttle.
He would’ve made it too if it weren’t for those damn pesky streetlights.
An almost similar story….
Many, many moons ago, the local hometown CAP/flying club decided to take the Cub to a local festival at a shopping plaza for a display. Very Early morning arrival, no wind, very experienced ex-Korea and Vietnam C-119 driver, with a million hours or so in the Cub, so not a real issue.
Around 4pm it had been a fall full sun day, muggy and hot, not forecasted to be. The winds had shifted, so the local cops cleared a better, but slightly shorter path for him.
As he lined up to go, he realized that he had failed to consider the 30 foot Interstate burm at the end of the new path, next to the parking lot, now directly in his path. He shut down, and a conference ensued. Cops wanted him off the lot, it would be a full shopping center in the morning, so waiting wasn’t a good option.
We pushed the plane back to within inches of a light pole, he started and stood on the brakes as he gunned it, throwing all kinds of rocks and dust into the spectators. He got it off the ground, only clearing the interstate guardrail by a few feet. If a semi had come by at that moment, it would have splatted him like a bug. The crowd, of course, didn’t know any different and ooh’d and ahh’d at the takeoff, while the rest of us held our breath.
Back at the airport, he commented that what he did was “F-in Stupid!”, and that was the most concerned he had ever been in a cockpit, outside of combat. He was braced for the crash, because he didn’t think he would clear the guardrail.
He is long gone now, but I still remember him walking around in a circle outside of the hangar, cussing himself a storm. You had to know the guy, no one had ever heard him say a swear word, ever.
Sometimes, we just make stupid decisions. Usually we live through them. Sometimes we don’t…
