It wasn't my best landing, but it wasn't that bad!
Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 9:18 pmSo, there I was ....
Building a house at an airpark and flew up today to show the guys building my hangar my plane. There's an 8 knot direct crosswind on the very narrow runway and even my wife on the ground said my approach was iffy. But I nailed it, bounced only a few times but kept it on the blacktop. Taxied to the house. Since my driveway isn't ready, I left it on the taxiway at the end, hopped out and walked over to talk to the folk. A few neighbors came out to check out the plane and chat. Then we heard the sirens of a crash crew coming down the road from the nearby town. Uh oh. Did someone get hurt? Well, in a few minutes the entire crash response crew comes charging down the taxiway towards us with lights and sirens. I wish I grabbed a selfie.
The incident commander comes over and says El Paso County air traffic reported a plane lost radar contact and crashed here. I said, well, I wasn't talking to El Paso County air traffic (it doesn't exist, probably was KCOS approach) and I didn't crash. They were skeptical. Looking over my plane like it might be the one they are looking for. I know, it lost one of its tail fins during the build, but it wasn't a crash site. He called dispatch and they get him a tail number, it didn't match mine. I said another plane landed 30 minutes ago and seemed fine to me, maybe that was their quandary. Said it was a student pilot on a solo. Well its not me. And I didn't hear anything that might help. He left with the squadron of response trucks following. About 30 minutes later he showed back up. Said the student pilot had gotten scared and did a precautionary landing at our field. Was under flight following from KCOS and didn't inform them of the landing. So they thought he crashed. Turns out, he landed safely, called his instructor and he came up the ferry the plane back to base. On my departure, I waited as the "crash plane" taxied past. Called the instructor on the radio and he relayed the story to me. Said he also really wants to build a Waiex.
So my landing may have not been the best, but it wasn't what brought the calvary.
Building a house at an airpark and flew up today to show the guys building my hangar my plane. There's an 8 knot direct crosswind on the very narrow runway and even my wife on the ground said my approach was iffy. But I nailed it, bounced only a few times but kept it on the blacktop. Taxied to the house. Since my driveway isn't ready, I left it on the taxiway at the end, hopped out and walked over to talk to the folk. A few neighbors came out to check out the plane and chat. Then we heard the sirens of a crash crew coming down the road from the nearby town. Uh oh. Did someone get hurt? Well, in a few minutes the entire crash response crew comes charging down the taxiway towards us with lights and sirens. I wish I grabbed a selfie.
The incident commander comes over and says El Paso County air traffic reported a plane lost radar contact and crashed here. I said, well, I wasn't talking to El Paso County air traffic (it doesn't exist, probably was KCOS approach) and I didn't crash. They were skeptical. Looking over my plane like it might be the one they are looking for. I know, it lost one of its tail fins during the build, but it wasn't a crash site. He called dispatch and they get him a tail number, it didn't match mine. I said another plane landed 30 minutes ago and seemed fine to me, maybe that was their quandary. Said it was a student pilot on a solo. Well its not me. And I didn't hear anything that might help. He left with the squadron of response trucks following. About 30 minutes later he showed back up. Said the student pilot had gotten scared and did a precautionary landing at our field. Was under flight following from KCOS and didn't inform them of the landing. So they thought he crashed. Turns out, he landed safely, called his instructor and he came up the ferry the plane back to base. On my departure, I waited as the "crash plane" taxied past. Called the instructor on the radio and he relayed the story to me. Said he also really wants to build a Waiex.
So my landing may have not been the best, but it wasn't what brought the calvary.