Mayday this morning..

Pinstriper

Pinstriper

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Messages
423
Location
Oroville California
Display Name
Display name:
Pinstriper
Cherokee lost a cyl and took out a good portion of his block.. But did an awesome job putting it down in kind of rugged terrain. And his luck was with him today as he landed his Cherokee on Cherokee road! :)
image-1_zps8cb33319.jpg
 
Last edited:
Holy **** this guy is good! Lucky as well whats up with these Pipers are they good planes i thought they were nice looking should i steer away?
 
Looks like he did a good job of putting it down. It is kind of a cooincidence that he landed at Cherokee Road with his Cherokee.
 
marcoseddi said:
Holy **** this guy is good! Lucky as well whats up with these Pipers are they good planes i thought they were nice looking should i steer away?
Click to expand...

What failed? The engine. Piper doesn't make engines. They use Lycomings and Continentals, just like all the other airframe manufacturers.
 
Nice to hear a successful outcome to an emergency landing!

David
 
marcoseddi said:
Holy **** this guy is good! Lucky as well whats up with these Pipers are they good planes i thought they were nice looking should i steer away?
Click to expand...

Any plane can have an engine out. That is why we train for them. You can maintain them and monitor their health (oil analysis, compression checks, etc.) and that helps. You could buy a plane with a turbine engine (TP or Jet). They tend to be more reliable than a piston. You could also buy a twin (you need to stay proficient at handling engine outs, though) and then you have second engine, if one fails.
 
I say, "winning"!
 
Looks like the cylinders will live to fly another day. Wonder what caused it?
 
Seeing there is one rod missing, I'm going to guess broken rod, which ejected itself out the top of the engine casing.
 
Buy the CFI who taught him emergency landings a bottle of very old scotch!
 
Nice save all around - someone is wondering what an engine rod is doing in their backyard I'm sure.
 
*Clap Clap* It's good to see a relatively happy end result for once. I'm curious though, what will insurance normally cover in a situation like this.
 
Wow. He had JUST cleared the high terrain when the engine let go, too... headed to Oroville in the lower left, and had come from the Northeast. Cherokee Road at I-70 is where the green "A" marker is. :yikes:

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • ScreenShot376.png
    ScreenShot376.png
    2.1 MB · Views: 304
Insurance normally doesn't cover the engine in a failure like this.
 
Yes, having been there I can vouch for the lack of decent emergency landing spots on much of that route so he's lucky it held out until he got across.
 
Wow, did the cowling blow off in flight with dmg like that?
 
Silvaire said:
Yes, having been there I can vouch for the lack of decent emergency landing spots on much of that route so he's lucky it held out until he got across.
Click to expand...

He may get some help from the insurance to remove the wings and get the airplane to the airport. They may decide to hang a new engine on the highway and fly it out. Not always a good choice.
 
John221us said:
Again, false statement. Cherokees have an equal or slightly better glide ratio than a 172, as long as you maintain best glide speed.
Click to expand...

Not all Cherokees are created equal. A Six-300 has a very different glide ratio than a -235 or -180.
 
Can't say enough about the great job he did!! :yes:
Says a lot about poor man's IFR(-oads) flying.....
 
marcoseddi said:
Holy **** this guy is good! Lucky as well whats up with these Pipers are they good planes i thought they were nice looking should i steer away?
Click to expand...

Same engine as in a 172. Safety is an illusion demanded by those delusional enough to think they can cheat death. There is nothing safe about aviation, you just either deal with the emergencies or die, simple as that.
 
marcoseddi said:
Holy **** this guy is good! Lucky as well whats up with these Pipers are they good planes i thought they were nice looking should i steer away?
Click to expand...

Pipers are great airplanes and use the same engines everybody else puts in their airframes. Anything mechanical can fail.
 
BillTIZ said:
He may get some help from the insurance to remove the wings and get the airplane to the airport. They may decide to hang a new engine on the highway and fly it out. Not always a good choice.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
 
BillTIZ said:
He may get some help from the insurance to remove the wings and get the airplane to the airport. They may decide to hang a new engine on the highway and fly it out. Not always a good choice.
Click to expand...

When I worked for Al Martin there were several incidents like this where we would bring a 'loaner engine" from the inventory out to location, swap them, cops would block the road and I'd fly out. One was in a farmers front yard, a 172 the farmer came out and drove down T-posts to tie it down. When I was leaving he asked how much he could get an old plane to have for a lawn ornament, he kinda liked it. I trailered out a 170 I had ferried in a few weeks earlier for annual that basically was condemned due to corrosion and stripped of usable parts. We bolted on the wings and struts real quick and I gave him a prop that he could build a quick mount for. He asked "how much"? I told him he and his wife had already paid for it in hospitality as they fed and watered us as we worked. He was tickled to have it.
 
John221us said:
Again, false statement. Cherokees have an equal or slightly better glide ratio than a 172, as long as you maintain best glide speed.
Click to expand...

He might be mixing it up with a Lance.
 
Henning said:
Same engine as in a 172. Safety is an illusion demanded by those delusional enough to think they can cheat death. There is nothing safe about aviation, you just either deal with the emergencies or die, simple as that.
Click to expand...

Henning, with your permission, I am going to quote you, and use it as a tag line.
 
BillTIZ said:
He may get some help from the insurance to remove the wings and get the airplane to the airport. They may decide to hang a new engine on the highway and fly it out. Not always a good choice.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the wing needs to be removed. On a trailer the wings 30' tip to tip, might be able to move it at night (early morning) with guide car like they do when they move homes...not sure how far to a field?
 
spiderweb said:
He might be mixing it up with a Lance.
Click to expand...
Lances (the plane not the persons) glide just fine. Pilots have a tendency to underestimate the glide ratio of airplanes with high best glide speeds because they have a proportionately high sink rate.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Not all Cherokees are created equal. A Six-300 has a very different glide ratio than a -235 or -180.
Click to expand...

Here is some protocol: "Cherokee" or "Cherokee 140" are the same thing. All other Cherokees require a qualifier in the name Cherokee 180; Cherokee 235; Cherokee 6/260; Cherokee 6/300; Cherokee Arrow (RG).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top