WHOA!! Engine out over my house!

Rob Schaffer

Rob Schaffer

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Nov 27, 2007
Messages
1,371
Location
Green Lane, PA
Display Name
Display name:
CLR2TKF
Just a few minutes ago, a small Champ or something similar was flying over my house in Lansdale PA. It was Yellow, with a red belly from the main gear back to the tailwheel and was just putzing along not much more than maybe 800 feet over the center of town. As he was right over my house, the sky went silent!!! I thought, Oh S*** and jumped to my feet. He looked to follow out towards broad street going east, then I was able to see him turn left, which would have put him near the industrial park where they have some good large parking lots and fields. I can't confirm, but I think I saw the prop stopped, but it could have been his wing strut from that distance.

I thought the worst, and then he appeared slowly over the houses in the distance again, seeming to climb very cautiously. He circled about three times over that area of town and slowly climbed to a height higher than he was before and then began heading back over town towards North Penn High School area and in the direction of Perkiomen (N10).

If anyone knows of this pilot or plane,... tell him good job!
 
Found this on Google,.. this is the plane, a Champ in the same color scheme.
 

Attachments

  • TN_champ.jpg
    TN_champ.jpg
    17.5 KB · Views: 56
Rob Schaffer said:
Just a few minutes ago, a small Champ or something similar was flying over my house in Lansdale PA. It was Yellow, with a red belly from the main gear back to the tailwheel and was just putzing along not much more than maybe 800 feet over the center of town. As he was right over my house, the sky went silent!!! I thought, Oh S*** and jumped to my feet. He looked to follow out towards broad street going east, then I was able to see him turn left, which would have put him near the industrial park where they have some good large parking lots and fields. I can't confirm, but I think I saw the prop stopped, but it could have been his wing strut from that distance.

I thought the worst, and then he appeared slowly over the houses in the distance again, seeming to climb very cautiously. He circled about three times over that area of town and slowly climbed to a height higher than he was before and then began heading back over town towards North Penn High School area and in the direction of Perkiomen (N10).

If anyone knows of this pilot or plane,... tell him good job!
Click to expand...

I'll bet the pilot just pulled the power to descend over something interesting. I really doubt you could see that the prop stopped, they are pretty hard to see from very far away. These planes have such a low sink rate that they can go for what seems like a long time with very little power.

I'm also thinking that this "good job" involved a deliberate violation of FAR 91.119b if he was flying at 800 AGL over your town (before the engine appeared to quit).
 
gismo said:
I'm also thinking that this "good job" involved a deliberate violation of FAR 91.119b if he was flying at 800 AGL over your town (before the engine appeared to quit).
Click to expand...

I'm just curious how someone on the ground can determine that an airplane is between 800, 900 or a 1000 feet?
 
It's a guess,... but I know that he was MUCH lower than typical planes fly over on a calm night like this.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I'm just curious how someone on the ground can determine that an airplane is between 800, 900 or a 1000 feet?
Click to expand...
Not sure about an aircraft but I guess the cloud deck daily...I am getting fairly astute at it...
 
Come to Windwood and I'll make you a burger on the grill and we'll call it even :D

Whatever happened to tonight, seemed out of place. Called my friend Lee tonight as well when it happened to see if the plane was flying over his place, cause it headed in that direction, but he was shopping at the time.
 
Rob, I've seen a plane like that at N10. I think it's based there.
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I'm just curious how someone on the ground can determine that an airplane is between 800, 900 or a 1000 feet?
Click to expand...

Unless you're pretty familiar with the size of the airplane and have some common calibrated reference, you can't. For example, in aerobatic competitions, we have a "floor" altitude below which a pilot is penalized. We employ a group of experienced, trained, and certified aerobatic judges to grade the flight. And even in that scenario, we have a pilot fly what we call "the low lines" where they fly back and forth in front of the judges to calibrate them, based upon their exact reference or view of the flight, as to what a plane looks like at the floor altitude. Without some kind of system like that, there's just no way to accurately judge how high an airplane is above the ground.
 
I'm sure those of us who look up everytime and airplane flies overhead can tell when one is really low as opposed to the usual flyovers.

Judging actual AGL altitude is tough, though.
 
Rob Schaffer said:
Found this on Google,.. this is the plane, a Champ in the same color scheme.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty common color scheme for early post-war Champs. If I had to guess, I would say he reduced power. Champs are pretty quiet to begin with and pulling the power back would make one even quieter. A lot of Champs don't have self-starters, so if the engine stopped for whatever reason, good for the pilot if he were able to get the prop turning again.


Trapper John
 
Rotor&Wing said:
I'm just curious how someone on the ground can determine that an airplane is between 800, 900 or a 1000 feet?
Click to expand...

You've got a very valid point. Without a reference like a 1000 ft tall building or antenna nearby I think it's nearly impossible to determine an aircraft's altitude anywhere near that accurately. OTOH, if a plane is only a few hundred feet AGL it's pretty obvious that it's below 1000.
 
Kelvin said:
Not sure about an aircraft but I guess the cloud deck daily...I am getting fairly astute at it...
Click to expand...

I think that when you are estimating cloud base height you're really looking out towards the horizon and mentally measuring the gap there. At least in my case I can usually nail the difference between 1000 and 1500 AGL if the clouds are extensive but I'm easily fooled by the base height of a single puffy Cu.
 
dmccormack said:
I'm sure those of us who look up everytime and airplane flies overhead can tell when one is really low as opposed to the usual flyovers.

Judging actual AGL altitude is tough, though.
Click to expand...
Indeed -- although the really low might not be too low, as most pilots fly much higher than they need to be.
 
Just pulling the power won't stop the prop. Even killing the engine won't stop the prop. It's not easy to stop a windmilling prop...you have pitch up to an uncomfortable angle to make one stop.

Bob Gardner
 
jesse said:
Indeed -- although the really low might not be too low, as most pilots fly much higher than they need to be.
Click to expand...

Those of us who hang around airports can look up and tell when someone is too high on final.

How do we do that?

Repetition and practice (we have a little airport restaurant on the field with nice big windows facing the runway. It's a fun game guessing where the next 172 will touch down).

We have a pipeline patrol airplane buzz us every other week or so.

I've flown 500' AGL over the hilltop behind our house (and no, the hilltop is not inhabited by anyone other than deer and turkey).:rolleyes2:

I've had friends fly 500' AGL over the same hill.

This guys is WAY below 500' AGL. B)

How high? I don't know. But I can see the bluing of the exhaust, the grease along the belly, and the rivets in the wing surface.
 
Rob Schaffer said:
I thought the worst, and then he appeared slowly over the houses in the distance again, seeming to climb very cautiously.
Click to expand...
LOL... even with only one person aboard, a 65-hp 7AC seems to climb "cautiously". They are wonderful airplanes, but not exactly known for hi-perf. climbs. Pitching up really does not help at all. Champs are among those airplanes that "do everything at the same speed". :D


I'd guess that the power reduction was done on purpose (training flight, maybe?) or perhaps somebody bumped the throttle or the mag switch (no mixture control if it is a stock 7AC).

And yes, that engine/prop is pretty quiet at idle...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top