Relay-Version: B 2.11 6/12/87; site scolex
Path: uunet!seismo!ukma!rex!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!haven!umbc3.umbc.edu!umbc1.umbc.edu!robie
From: robie@umbc1.umbc.edu (Mr. William Robie; POSI (GRAD))
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: What else can you say?
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.094015.7084@umbc3.umbc.edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 91 02:22:48 PST
Sender: newspost@umbc3.umbc.edu (News  posting account)
Reply-To: robie@umbc1.umbc.edu
Organization: UMBC University of Maryland Baltimore county - Baltimore, MD, US
Lines: 31
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

I recently received a call from an old friend I hadn't seen it about 10 years
and he reminded me of this incident:

He was riding in a plane leased by his (aviation) company's flying club.  They
stopped at a small Virginia airport to pick me up, and I climbed into the back
seat with my friend.  I was going to show them where a little foothills
airport was that had an active skydiving club jumping that day.  The PIC had
about 120 hours, all (found out later) flying out of airports with goshawful
long runways.  In the right front seat was a mega-hour sky god with a buncha
ratings including most instructor tickets.  We in the back had about 1,200
each.  We entered the pattern to the 1,800 foot runway and everything was
fine till we got on final...then some parachutes opened - they were a ways
distant and not a hazard, but it unnerved our pilot to where he forgot to
dump some flaps and kill some power.  We ended up floating over the runway for 
an awfully long time, finally touching down past midpoint and still rolling
fast.  We kept expecting to feel some brakes applied vigorously, but it
didnt happen...we kept rolling.  Ed looked over at me and grabbbed his
seatbelt, tugging it demonstratively. I snugged mine down, too. When it 
became obvious we were going off the end of the runway I said, "You wanna
turn that key off?" The guy in the right seat did so, just as we went airborne
again...briefly...over a steep, but short, embankment into the tops of some
small trees. It made lots of bendy-aluminum noises as the wing broke (and the
nose gear, and the cowlings, and the lotsa stuff), but we were not hurt.  
There was plenty of gas coming out of the broken wing, so we climbed out
pretty fast.  We scrambled up the embankment just in time to greet a herd
of skydivers who had run the length of the runway to save us. I couldn't
think of much else to say, so I asked,

"Is it ok for us to tie it down here overnight?"

Bill "I was in the BACK seat" RObie