One of my past instructors has a photo card in his wallet. One side has a nice old picture of an Ercoupe. The other side has a photo of what turns out to be the exact same aircraft in a great many pieces and bent so wildly and burnt it's hard to recognize there's even an aircraft at all.
He likes to place it on the counter near a new student, bad side up, to see if they'll ask what it is. Then he flips it over and says, "Same airplane the day before. My Ercoupe."
He was doing night pattern work at KBJC when he lost the engine on takeoff. He put the aircraft back on the ground, lost directional control, and ended up in a ditch, upside down. The place was a ghost-town around midnight.
A fire started, he received numerous 2nd and 3rd degree burns extracting himself, and then walked to a pay-phone on the field. (In the 1970s). The phone was at what is now known as Rotors of the Rockies. It's a long hike from the runway environment to there. Less/no fences back then, I believe.
Sheriff dispatcher started a police vehicle his direction, no fire/ambulance services. An off-duty Sargent with one of those "fancy new radios" mounted in his personal vehicle, responded and showed up to find the pilot in extreme shock, sitting on the ground, burnt badly and could see a fire was burning in the grass way over at the runway.
He called the dispatcher and said he wanted the fancy new "Flight For Life" helicopter launched immediately. And a fire truck. Dispatcher started the helo and called to wake up the Sheriff for approval.
Helicopter scooped up the pilot who was now in and out of consciousness, plopped him at Denver's St. Anthony Central Hospital a few minutes later and he spent a very long time living in the burn ward. Doc said if they'd have transported him in an Ambulance, he would have died of cardiac arrest enroute.
All this from a little business-card sized photo if you asked. A little shocking to hear after our second lesson in the Husky.
That instructor didn't have a very high regard for night flying at deserted airports, or aircraft not equipped with a fire-extinguisher. He does have a very high regard for EMS pilots and modern dispatch systems and procedures. He credits two-way radio and EMS helicopters with his being alive today.
He was into his early seventies in the mid-1990s and I've heard he was still instructing in taildraggers up until about five years ago. (?) Very little rattled him but he demanded top-notch directional control at touch-down, and not just because it was a taildragger.
I'm still young/dumb enough to happily complete a leg or two a year at night, and purposefully stay night-current at all times with pattern work at KAPA, but there's a manned tower and EMS is less than 1/4 mile down the entrance road.
I recently did some late-night pattern work at KBJC, but was reminded of this story while doing it. The place is still a ghost-town at night. Not my most stellar decision-making, thinking about it later on.
Maybe. I dunno.
I'll probably keep night flying until I give myself a good scare -- and if I survive it, then I'll probably stop. I like it too much, and my life insurance is paid up and no kids... but it wouldn't take a whole lot of work to convince me it's not worth it.
Again, shrug... Dunno. Just sharing the story.
