Folks,
After spending too many days over the past two weeks helping friends pull wet sheetrock/carpet/flooring out of their flooded homes here in Baton Rouge, I decided to spend a few minutes after breakfast perusing the internet and happened upon your very enjoyable site. To my surprise, I see that my mishap in Pflugerville a few weeks ago was a topic that had been discussed.
First things first - I graduated from Paris High School in 1970 and enrolled at TAMU that fall where I was a member of the Corps. Although I did not graduate from A&M, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for that school. I also hold the University of Texas in high esteem - although this may be the first time I have ever acknowledged that in public! My uncle flew a glider loaded with mortar ammo into a field in Normandy on D-Day, and had a very bad crash after a German machine gun shot out his air tanks used to deploy the spoilers. After 6 months in the hospital, he was discharged and enrolled in Univ. of Texas where he became a yell leader for the UT football team. Family lore always reported that when asked why a decorated combat veteran wanted to be a yell leader, his response was something like "have you seen the girls there?"
On the day of the accident I was enroute to Pflugerville to meet with a University of Texas Electrical Engineer who has "PhD" behind his name, so I wore my Aggie shirt to see what kind of sense of humor he had. Turns out he not only has a great sense of humor, but he took the entire day off to assist me with aircraft recovery, meeting with the landowner whose cornfield I trashed out, and taking care of the business reason I had come to KEDC that day.
Once the FSDO team from KSAT arrived that afternoon and completed their interview, they and their mechanic went to the landing (crash?) site to pull the cowl on the plane. Turns out that the throttle cable failed at the point where it connects to the fuel servo. It allowed me to retard the power, but would not re-open the throttle when needed.
I have over 2,000 hrs.in that plane, and have undergone a lot of re-current/IFR/safety training in it, but I do not recall ever putting the gear down, flaps 10, and pulling the power off to see the sink rate at any given airspeed. I recommend you go to altitude and run that experiment, because I had the plane trimmed to the speed required by the book, but that plane came out of the sky like a brick.
Also, like many of you, I was taught that once in the landing pattern you should be able to pull the power and land safely. You can throw that rule out of the window when landing at an uncontrolled field and you extend your downwind leg to let another plane on the ground take off in front of you, for that is why I was as far from KEDC as I was when I realized that I had no power. Returning to KEDC was not an option.
I received a message before lunch that day from the FSDO team that they were enroute and that I was not to do anything to alter the condition of the airplane before they arrived. I pulled my logbook, pilots' certificate, and medical to have them ready to show to the team. I also made sure I could show them dates of IPCs, BFRs, etc. without having to fumble around. They asked to see all of that and being able to produce that helped keep the interview moving and, I think, helped convey a picture of a prepared pilot. I
The interview was clearly not a friendly visit, but the FSDO team was professional in their questioning. I just remembered what we have all heard at various seminars to listen to the question, and just answer the question asked in as direct a manner as possible. I used "yes" or "no" a lot, and they did not seem to be bothered by those responses.
While I love to follow groups like yours, I very seldom post anything. Discovering this thread made me want to fill in some gaps on what happened that day. I look forward to reading your posts in the future. Should you ever find yourself in Baton Rouge, please give me a call at 225-335-6344, or email at
mike.hart@taylorporter.com.
(ducks and hides)
