|
Dave,
Just watched the interview. Great job again. Sorry
to hear about your friend. I lost a very good friend and my first flight
instructor many years ago. He was murdered at an ATM for $20. I would have much
preferred he died in an airplane. I know that doesn't help much but it's all
I've got.
I hope you are not going to quit flying. You have
shown multiple times that you are a very capable stick. If you love it keep
doing it. I'm sure everybody will understand if you decide to hang it
up for a while though.
I think some other people need call signs
too.
Ed Anderson......call sign "cave
man"
as he is one of the original "hairy chested
heroes" from which we have all evolved.
Tracy Crook.....call sign "Otter"
Come on folks lets think of some more. (call signs
should be reserved for those actually flying a rotary powered airplane and
related to something they have done good bad or ugly, and should be regarded as
an honor)
Monty
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2010 9:55
AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: [SoCAL-RVlist]
Re: Off Field Landing
Ok, sounds like I have some fessing up to do...
I took my mom up for a flight on her birthday and we went to overfly the
area we are going to be doing a memorial pass today. I was entering
a user waypoint in my hand held GPS and my hand must have accidentally hit the
'cold start' switch. That switch doubles the injector duration and is
used for starting in extremely cold temperatures. But it was too much
fuel for the engine to keep me aloft (just an occasional sputter). I was
only at about 1100 AGL at the time so my emergency procedures only got as far
as: turn toward airport, switch fuel tank, aux fuel pump, verify
fuel pressure, primary switches turned on... shit, time to find a place to
land this thing... call mayday, choose best spot, fly under traffic
signal and onto road.
Mom was cool and collected the whole time. We were very lucky to
find a gap in traffic, the cars were waiting for the light I flew
under. Also really glad to have a plane as nimble as an RV. I
don't think I could have done it in a Bonanza. (course a Bonanza doesn't have
a 'cold start switch' either)
It was not until after all the commotion on my drive back to OKB
that I finally had a few minutes to think about what could have been the
cause... then I really felt stupid. If only my emergency
procedures went one more step and I would have tried tweaking the mixture I
could have saved myself a lot of embarrassment.. But when it is time to
fly/land the plane, that is what you have to do.
Sure enough, upon return to the plane I discovered the cold start switch
flipped. I checked out everything else, ran fine. Later in the
afternoon I flew it home to OKB from Palomar. I am so very grateful that
extreme embarrassment is all I suffer. Thanks for all the support from
the GA community.
|