Lancair off-airport landing, Georgetown, TX (KGTU) - 6/4/2017

[BigBadLou]

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2017/06/lancair-legacy-incident-occurred-june.html

Engine trouble, landed in a corn field.
He came from the east, tried to glide to KGTU, came up short on the rwy but found a place to set her down.

He flew it all the way down, can't argue with the result, both occupants uninjured!
I like good news for a change. Especially at my home field.

Audio: http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kgtu/KGTU-Jun-04-2017-2100Z.mp3
Don't have time right now to annotate everything, would appreciate if somebody could.

 

[eman1200]

.....Audio: http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kgtu/KGTU-Jun-04-2017-2100Z.mp3
Don't have time right now to annotate everything, would appreciate if somebody could.

Declared emergency....stated he was 8 miles at 8000'....field elev appears to be 790 so I'm very surprised he didn't make the field....well, he did make the field but it was a corn field....2 people alive and well, they used another plane to circle the aircraft until help arrived.....no fire.

 

[FORANE]

I have heard legacy guys say that glide is 3000 fpm with prop forward and 1000 to 1500 fpm with prop back. In my little 235 / 320 my glide is about 1 mile per 1000 feet at best glide speed of 104 kts. Engine out in one of these is a very bad place to be. He did a great job of getting down it would appear.

 

[eman1200]

ah, 'lancair', yeah, missed that part.

 

[BigBadLou]

Didn't know they glide so poorly.
Also, it has been blowing from the NW the past few days so he definitely had headwind getting down.
He made the best of a bad situation and lives to tell the tale.

 

[Shepherd]

Did it right, done good doing it. He gets to tell the tale to his grandkids.

 

[denverpilot]

Looks like it was done "right enough" to me. Not a fan of corn once it has ears, since it'll batter the hell out of the airframe, if there's another option... but any port in a storm.

 

[camel]

I have heard legacy guys say that glide is 3000 fpm with prop forward and 1000 to 1500 fpm with prop back. In my little 235 / 320 my glide is about 1 mile per 1000 feet at best glide speed of 104 kts. Engine out in one of these is a very bad place to be. He did a great job of getting down it would appear.

I was surprised too.. the Lancair Columbia has a glide ratio of 13:1. I know they're different planes, I just didn't realize how much lower the glide ratio was for the Legacy.