I was in the aircraft captured on video!
The whole video is good. Starting at 6:30 you see a LAKE L-4 aircraft trying to take off. I was in the darn thing and yes it scared us. After the final splash down I turned to the pilot and said "God was kind enough to give us a warning; lets wait until morning." We did!!!
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WOW 0 -
Glad you made it out okay, Bruce.
Scary Sheeit.
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I was a passenger in a Dehaviland Beaver during a sudden rainstorm. They have the aerodynamics of a brick and any rough air doesn't make for a very enjoyable ride. Because of the reduced visibility he called his spotter on the shore of the lake to make sure his landing area was clear. Only one boat parallel to the shore was spotted. We made our approach and the idiot in the boat goosed it and cut straight across our path. My buddy throttled up and pulled back on the stock at somehow we missed the boat. We landed quite a ways down the lake and taxied back a heck of a long ways. Any landing you can walk away from is good but some landings have more pucker factor. Bob 0 -
He should be given a ticket. He's in the carpool lane, and it doesn't look like it can hold enough people to legally be in that lane.... 6 -
I was in one aircraft crash. A lot like that one, but we ended up upside down. I had to kick out a window as fuel dripped out of the wings. Then, I ran like hell. 0 -
I had flown to visit my mom in Ravenna that day. I think it was fathers day or the fourth of July weekend. Flying back my CFI called me on the radio and asked if I wanted to go land in the water in the Lake float plane. Ohio had just opened up several lakes and reservoirs for landing aircraft. I said sure, I was just south of Akron OH, changed my destination airport and landed at his airport. We jumped into the 180HP Lake and took off, landing was not a biggie, we just set her down and taxied to the beach.
We had a coke and wandered around a bit, it was HOT and humid. People in droves were around the plane amazed one could land on water. DUH. After an hour we tried to take off. No matter where we went we had a packed flotilla of boats around us. We went the the end of the lake turned into the wind and waited just on step for boats full of drunks to get the hell out of the way. When finally clear of boats the oil temp was one needle away from the redline, I was calling temps and speeds. You can hear us at about 2/3 throttle trying to get on step to gain speed. I was calling out airspeed as he flew/ bounced over the chop. When we hit wakes it would launch us and SLAM back in the water. The high density altitude was a real issue, it did not want to fly. The final surge you hear in the engine is his keeping us from turning into a submarine and dying right there. With my fused neck there was no way I could escape a sinking/sunk airplane. We hit so hard it peeled paint off the belly and stoved my back real bad.
We returned to the beach and were mobbed by people asking millions of questions. We answered them all and asked the parents to keep the kids off the aircraft. One fellow, a really nice guy said he was camping in a tent and would move it to the beach to keep and eye on it for us.We were hungry, folks said there was a pizza place about a mile down the road. We started walking to get some vittles. A really nice family was leaving and asked where we were going, we told him. The truck was full with his wife and four kids so we rode to the pizza place in the back of the truck. Turns out the mile was closer to six!
We got there discussing options. I called the local motel and they has two rooms left for a reasonable price. We ate a very good pizza picked up some beer and the owner of the hotel came to pick us up when we told him we had no ride and no taxi was available. The rooms were fantastic, clean and fresh, $79.00 including tax. We had no extra clothes, our shoes and clothes soaked, we were dog tired from the experience and Adrenalin rush let down. He even offered, without asking, to take us back to the lake at 6:00AM. Of course I tossed him $20.00 when we got back to the plane, he protested mightily but we insisted.
The take off this time was beautiful, the valley's full of fog, the sky clear and cooler. I got back to the airport, jumped in my plane and we both flew our planes to met some friends at the Portsmouth OH airport for breakfast. Those are fond memories that I am glad I walked away from for sure.That LAKE aircraft was destroyed by a F1 tornado when it tossed a Cherokee onto its left wing punching the landing gear through the wing and smashing the nose.
It only had 400 hours on the engine and a guy bought it. It got fixed and is still flying.
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Did he log all ten landings? Friend wants to know. 3 -
I remember you writing about this. 3 -
I am reminded why the steermans were painted with a bright neon yellow peril finish - and of the origin of the phrase / nomenclature "yellow peril"...
I recall an incident were a float plane landed on the Delaware river adjacent to the USS Olympia / on the Philadelphia side of the river - coming to a stop under the Benjamin Franklin bridge...
While the facility / sight had been listed as a float plane landing zone since the late 30's they had just been recertified and opened for business again after close to 20 years on the inactive reserve emergency only list...
Several hundred folk called 911 to report a plane crashing into the river or hitting the bridge abutment foundation - and the local news reporting a crash...
Turns out to simply have been the first float plane to land at the facility since it was modernized and reopened for traffic...
Any thoughts on why the windscreen imploded in the video - I don't see a bird strike or hail - it just seems to let go and shatter when flexed in the frame...
Mike
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I am not saying I did or did not fly in that same plane on a previous flight under the bridge of SR35 going over the Ohio River. However, the third beam from the left needs a spot of paint. 
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Good pilots prove their skill by avoiding bad situations.
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Glad you decided to wait another day to fly out. I watch many AOPA videos of accidents and it always amazes me about pilots who see all of the signs of problems and just ignore them when they have chances to stop but they continue to push on and they get beyond their flight training. 0 -
Wow, you know the old saying: Any landing you can walk away from....... 3 -
Holy cow. Glad you made it out all ok. 0 -
That thing was flying low.. 0 -
These feet were made to stay on the ground . Sorry, but flying scares the poop out of me.0
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