AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

It was a miracle landing.  Three adults and three children flying in a Piper Cherokee Six were lucky to be alive after their aircraft made an emergency landing in Kisbey, Saskatchewan, Canada, reports the Star Phoenix.  Canada’s Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the accident.

This training flight offered a real education.  A pilot operating a Beechcraft 18 on a training flight was forced to make an emergency landing on U.S. 27 near Weston, Fla., reports the Miami Herald.  No one was injured in the accident.

Amazing helicopter rescue, part one.  Among the more than 200 people rescued from two ice floes off the coast of Latvia, 39 were fetched by helicopter, reports RT.com. The helicopter pilots faced strong winds.

Amazing helicopter rescue, part two.  Two men trapped on Ireland’s Benevenagh Mountain were rescued by a PSNI Search and Rescue team using Irish Army helicopters, reports UTv.  The men were trapped in a snow gully.

Talk about insult after injury!  Pilot George Thomas has filed suit against the Colville, Wash., police department after accusing an officer of using “excessive force” when arresting him after he made an emergency landing at Colville Municipal Airport, reports the Spokesman-Review.  He claims his shoulder was injured after a police officer shoved him against his cruiser and stuck a taser gun in his back.

That’s an interesting use of a helicopter.  The folks at New Jersey Central Power & Light has a new tool to keep tree branches away from power lines — giant saw blades hanging from the bottom of a helicopter, reports ABC News.  The system uses blades that spin at 2,400 revolutions a minute.

Does it come with an actual rescuer?  The next time you find yourself floating in the sea waiting for a rescue, it may be from a different source.  The Mashable blog reports that an Iranian company has built Pars, a rescue drone.

Sometimes you  need to resist the urge. Some would say that Billy Cheesman Jr. went a bit overboard with his April Fool’s joke. making it appear as if an aircraft had crashed into his business’s building in Yucaipa, Calif. reports the Press-Enterprise.  He even put crime scene tape around the “crash” to make it look more real.

That could not have been easy to watch. Richard Small was noticing how dirty his 1969 Piper Twin Comanche as it was landing at New Zealand’s Taieri Aerodrome when he saw the aircraft touch down and skid off the runway, reports the New Zealand Herald.  Despite plowing through a fence at the end of the runway, the pilot and two passengers onboard were not injured.

The punishment fits the crime. Adam Gardenhire is going to federal prison for 30 months after being convicted of pointing a laser into the cockpit of a private aircraft landing at  Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, along with a helicopter operated by the Pasadena Police Department, reports LAist.  The judge said the tough sentence was handed down as a warning to others contemplating similar stunts.

Isn’t this the Easter Bunny’s job? Children at Velocity Church in Green Township, Ohio, had their Easter eggs delivered in a unique way — by helicopter in a field at Oak Hills High School, reports Cincinnati.com. The helicopter dropped around 17,000 eggs, while the Easter Bunny distributed another 3,000.

Taking the humble golf cart to the next level.  Pro golfer Bubba Watson’s video of his new hovercraft golf cart went viral, reports Mashable.  The video and the cart are part of an advertisement for Watson sponsor Oakley sunglasses.

It’s always good when you can walk away. An 84-year-old pilot survived an emergency landing of his Cessna 170 at California’s Livermore Airport, reports Livermore Patch.  As he landed, his foot got stuck in the rudder. He made  a hard turn left off the runway and skidded in the dirt.

It’s a highway, it’s a runway!  The pilot of a Cessna 150 was forced to make an emergency landing on California’s  State Route 125 after experiencing a loss of power, reports East County magazine.  The resident of Mexico was in the area to visit relatives.

The cat used one of its nine lives.  A crew taking a wrecking ball to a house damaged by an aircraft accident in South Bend, Ind., found quite a surprise in the home’s wall, reports the Post-Tribune. A cat jumped out of a wall that was about to be destroyed.

They love the smell of jet fuel in the morning — and all day!  News Track India brings us a story about bears in Russia’s Kronotsky Nature Reserve who are getting high by sniffing fumes from discarded barrels of aircraft fuel. After deeply sniffing the fuel, the bears dig a shallow hole and lie back as the effects kick in.

I’ve never seen a hunting truck like this! Field & Stream magazine’s Gun Nut blog profiles photographer Dave Tunge, who uses his Piper Super Cub — he calls it his “hunting truck” — to hunt for pheasant.   He uses the aircraft to fly 150-200 miles away and land directly in fields to hunt for the birds.

To catch a thief.  A helicopter owned by Detroit’s WJBK-TV played a key role in helping police nab a car thief suspect, reports MLive.com.  The helicopter helped police keep track of the suspect’s car during a 20-minute high-speed chase.

I guess it wasn’t a helicopter to the rescue.   Two men who escaped from a prison located outside of Montreal via helicopter are now back in jail, reports the Guardian.  The trio were arrested about 30 miles away from the prison.

A mentor earlier in life might have been helpful. Jonathan Standridge, a project manager at Boeing, has become a mentor to Colton Harris-Moore, who became well known as the Barefoot Bandit, reports AvWeb. 21-year-old Harris-Moore was arrested after a two-year spree of stealing and flying aircraft.  Standridge says the young man wants to earn a degree in  aeronautical engineering degree, earn a pilot’s certificate and design his own aircraft in the future.

This is MY kind of wedding! Heather Howley and Marius Ivascu decided to bring the aviation theme to their recent wedding, reports Yahoo News.  The bride, a helicopter pilot, flew up 3,000 feet to allow the groom, a pilot and skydiving instructor, to jump and land at their reception.  The reception was held at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, an aviation history museum.

Do the crime? Do the time.  James R. Cate of Talpa, Texas, is facing 1.5 years in prison after being convicted of shooting at a crop duster spraying his neighbor’s field, reports KENS-TV.  A bullet hit the propeller, went through the engine cowling and into the chemical hopper, but the pilot wasn’t injured.

Meet dumb and dumber!   Margarito Trisitan III and Eugene Uresti were arrested after allegedly shining a laser into the cockpit of a Customs and Border Protection helicopter, reports the Monitor.  The men were found after the helicopter followed the car where the light came from.  Trisitan was also charged with marijuana possession.

Not such a happy birthday. New Zealand’s Nelson Aero Club celebrated its 80th birthday last year, and it might be its last.  The club’s two instructors were laid off after a meltdown of procedures, reports Stuff.co.nz.  Club members rallied to call for a special meeting about future operations.

We all love a good ending.  Linda Shackelford, a NASA employee, managed to walk away after an emergency landing in a wooded area outside of Baytown, Texas, reports KTRK-TV.  Shackelford said her engine stalled.

On Feb. 7, I did a blog post and story on AOPA member Shannon Osborne, a member of the North Jersey chapter of The Ninety-Nines, who had come up with a unique idea to help keep pilot skills sharp when bad weather limits winter flying.  She pledged to donate $5 to the AOPA Foundation’s Air Safety Institute for every course the 16 members of her Ninety-Nines chapter took in the month of February.

Eight of Osborne’s chapter’s 16 members participated in her challenge, taking five ASI safety courses.  So she flew to Frederick last week with her former flight instructor, Tim O’Neil, and presented ASI with a check for $40. “I’d like to see 100 percent chapter participation next year and make this challenge an annual thing,” she said.

Osborne would also like to see more Ninety-Nines chapters take up the challenge, or even donate to ASI. “If we can get more people talking about ASI products, more will be invested in safety,” she said.  ”It’s a focus on air safety and that’s a win-win for everyone.”

I’m a student pilot, so I decided to take up Osborne’s challenge, completing four courses: “Say It Right,” “Runway Safety,” “Airspace for Everyone,” and “Do the Right Thing: Decision Making for Pilots.” And I was happy to write a $50 check to the foundation.  For a complete list of ASI offerings, click here.

Back to prison for you! Convicted murderer Panagiotis Vlastos thought he was escaping from Greece’s Trikala Prison when a helicopter showed up in the courtyard. Instead, Vlastos found himself shot in the leg and looking at a helicopter riddled with bullet holes, reports AvWeb.

Mountain lion versus helicopter – who wins?  David Nash was hiking on California’s Stevens Trail when he found himself being stalked by a mountain lion.  Nash called 911 and the California Highway Patrol dispatched helicopter crew Monty Emery and David White, who scared the mountain lion away with a high intensity spotlight, reports Flying magazine.

We knew this wasn’t going to end well.  William Stokely of Tulsa, Okla., has been forced to hand over his Robinson R44 helicopter and is banned from flying or owning an aircraft for two years after pleading guilty to trying to change the the registration marks on his aircraft, reports Flight Global.

Can you blame him?  Pilot Ray Kelly was forced to make an emergency landing in a hay field after his Piper PA-32 experienced an “odd phenomenon,” reports WRAL-TV.  He declined a flight home, and couldn’t say when he would fly again.

Talk about show and tell!  School children at Australia’s Cape Clear Primary School got a real show during recess — an aircraft making an emergency landing on a field next door, reports the Australian.  The pilot and passenger suffered only minor injuries.

The Somerset Police Department in South Central Kentucky is using a Calidus gyroplane for law enforcement under a program run by the federal Department of Justice to aid smaller law enforcement groups.

Flown by Lt. Shannon Smith, the Calidus has aided in several arrests for drunken driving, drug violations, and outstanding warrants. Shannon is the second law enforcement officer in the United States to become a certified flight instructor specific to gyroplanes for police operations

Somerset authorities launched an aviation program in April 2012 with the cooperation of the Law Enforcement Aviation Technology program, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice. The aviation program is administered nationally by the Small, Rural, Tribal, Border Regional Center (SRTB-RC) through The Center for Rural Development in Somerset. The program has assigned 17 aircraft to small law enforcement agencies that might not see aviation as a viable option to their police agency. See it fly here.

Talk about a miracle.  Three men who were flying a Vans RV-10 kit aircraft for a ski trip managed to survive an accident outside of Lake Placid, N.Y., reports NJ.com.  After the accident, the man spent 10 hours in sub-freezing temperatures until they were rescued by state forest rangers.

He just walked away, part 1.  Ricky Ford, III of Irvington, Ala., would surely win the prize for the most unusual customer to walk into Lackey’s Steak & Seafood Restaurant in Hamilton, Ohio.  Ford sat in the restaurant’s kitchen and told the owner he had just been in an aircraft accident, reports the Columbus Packet. After the police were called, it was determined that he really had been in an accident and had been declared missing.

He just walked away, part 2.  Frank Leroy Bell managed to walk away after being forced to land his twin-engine aircraft in a cemetery outside of Abilene, Texas, reports BigCountryHomePage.com.  It was reported that he ran out of fuel.

What a rescue!  A woman who nearly climbed to Piestewa Peak in Phoenix became part of a dramatic helicopter rescue, reports AZFamily.com.  The woman was injured, and weather conditions were windy, making the rescue more difficult.

It was the accident that wasn’t.  A group of golfers in Ulverston, England, reported what they thought was an aircraft accident in the sea off the Furness Coast, reports the North-West Evening Mail.  It turns out the light aircraft was only a microlight on a training mission.

Who knew? As Pope Benedict XVI begins the first day of his retirement, the Catholic News Agency came up with some interesting facts about the pontiff, including that the 86-year-old has a helicopter pilot certificate and has flown the papal copter to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.

It was a story that ended well.  Aimee Turner and her seven-month-old son Benji had the chance to thank Rick Harvey, a Sunshine Coast AGL helicopter rescue crewman, for saving them from their rooftop during floods in Bundaberg, Australia, reports the Sunshine Coast Daily.  It was only the second time Harvey had been reunited with people he had rescued.

What is WRONG with people? Two pilots found themselves facing a laser light in their cockpit as they were on final approach to Scotland’s Aberdeen Airport, reports STV News.  Local police are now investigating the incident.

Another helicopter rescue.  The Belfast Coast Guard rescued a man whose kayak capsized off Scotland’s Ayrshire coast, reports the Guide and Gazette.

This is a park I want to visit. The city of Greenville, S.C., has taken delivery of a Boeing 737 fuselage that will become part of a community aviation park, reports WYFF-TV.  The project has become a labor of love for the city, including Greenville Downtown Airport, GE Capital Aviation Services, Aircraft Demolition, Paragon Building Systems, the Greenville Jet Center and Greenville Technical College’s Aircraft Maintenance Technology.

I’m not sure videotaping should have been the priority here.  The amazing thing about the emergency landing of a Cessna 175 in a field in Cache County, Utah, was not that all five aboard were not injured. The amazing thing was that passenger Jonathan Fielding videotaped the whole thing on his cell phone, reports KUTV-TV.

Build an airplane — and an air strip.  Friends Patrick Tippman and Patrick Borton are about half way to building a Zenith STOL CH 750 kit plane, reports the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.  But their work isn’t done when the aircraft is complete. They will then build a 1,700-foot grass runway at Tippman’s back yard to fly the airplane.

What did that crop duster ever do to you? Stephen Paul Riley, owner of the Flying Lead Ranch in Texas, has pleaded guilty to shooting at a cropduster that flew over his property back in 2008, reports Flying magazine.  He apparently was unhappy that Keeter Aerial Spraying was passing over his property and had warned he would shoot any aircraft flying over his ranch.

Not a good target.  A Coast Guard HC-130H Hercules practicing approaches into Hawaii’s Kahului Airport was forced to return to Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point after someone pointed a green laser into the cockpit, reports the Maui News. No one was injured in the incident, which is being investigated.

Some people just know how to fly. Old Dominion University football coach Bobby Wilder was able to do recruiting trips from Tampa, Fla., to Rochester, N.Y., because Stephen Ballard, owner of a Virginia Beach construction company, loaned his private aircraft for the effort, reports HamptonRoads.com.  The coach credits having use of a private airplane for his successful recruiting class.