Ok folks,
Here's the story! Got signed off to fly my first short solo cross country! YEAH!!!! Took off, got to altitude, leveled out, got speed to 90 knots, everything was good in the world! Then I picked up a miss in the engine. OSH... (or something like that), thought my wife is really going to get MAD. Then thought "Fly the Plane". Said to myself, "no say it out loud", (a promise I made to myself during Paul Connors investigation). So aloud I said "FLY THE D... PLANE" ;-). Pulled Power back to around 1700 or so. Looked around to pick a spot to ditch it. Decided it would probably glide back to the airport. Set up best glide while making a 180. Looked at what was between me an the airport and didn't get a calming felling in my stomach. Figured it was probably better to head south to fly along a 4 lane road, back to the airport. Had time to try to diagnose the problem. Felt to me I had lost a cylinder. Tried one mag first, then the other to no avail. Pulled carb heat, no luck, ran the same. Eased back on the mixture in case the carb was dumping to much fuel, again no luck. Rechecked my flight path and was concerned I would make the field. About this time I lost another cylinder. Pucker factor!! So it became obvious I wasn't going to make it back to that airport. But there was one about 2-3 miles due south. Took a left 90 degrees and headed for the east end of the abandoned runway. Needed a little more power to insure I would come in with enough alt. Since the engine was running worse, I eased the power in to try to get 1500 rpm. Worked! Well for about that long. Lost another cylinder. Now I at 900 to 1000 rpm and that airfield is out of the question. Called Dawson unicom and notified them of my intent to put it down in a field next to the Pecan VOR. Turned left into the field, as apposed to right toward the pine trees and the end of the runway I was not going to make. NOW THE ENGIINE QUITS. I was at about 100 ft agl. and made the mistake of not putting the rest of the flaps down. But that worked out OK. Dropped down to just above the cotton, and held it off as long as I could. Then the Pucker factor really kicked in!!!!! MY GOD LOOK HOW BIG THOSE TREES ARE!! And they are come real fast!!! Finally it just dropped those last 4 feet. I put on the brakes hard but not so hard as to flip me over. Came to a rest 50 feet from the trees. Total distance from touchdown to stop, 100 yards. LONG SIGH!!!!. Tried to radio the airport I was down and OK to no avail. Walked 200 yds to the road and waited to company to arrive. And boy did it ever. Airport had called the Emergency rescue and every body else in the world. TV station came, etc.
I now KNOW what it feels like to ditch, that's a plus. There was NO damage to the plane, another plus. Except the engine of course. It eat a valve in the #1 cylinder. Which probably cluttered up the rings in the others, we will find out when we tear the engine down. Made the 6:00 news, not what I had in mind for the day, but it was a good report. WALKED away form the landing, a major plus. Cotton boles are very hard and sharp!! Not a plus. Will try to get the plane out of the field in the next couple days. FAA wasn't to mad, another plus.
Safe landings all
Bob Tilley
Albany, Ga.
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