View Full Version : a/c in field near Kidlington
Sedbergh
18th Oct 2004, 19:15
Coming home tonight (Monday) along a country road behind Bladon village I saw an apparently intact Piper type single in a field of winter wheat about 1 km west of Kidlington airfield.
The landing run was impressively short to judge from the wheelmarks.
Someone had done a 'kin good job of putting it in there, it wasn't an ideal field - trees on threshold, houses at far end and undulating in the middle . Presumably there wasn't too much choice!
Anyone know the circumstances?
PS according to the Beeb a chopper also dropped from a damaging, but not injurious height at Kidlington today - engine failure for a lady doing a type conversion to a Squirrel so 'twas said.
Kidlington have had a busy day - or was the Piper incident at the weekend when I don't use that road?
tmmorris
19th Oct 2004, 10:29
According to a friend in Cassington the plane was there first thing Saturday morning; the heli was Monday, so not both in one day...
Not heard why, though.
T
Sedbergh
19th Oct 2004, 10:35
Ta for that info - Hope the local "yoof" don't trash it while it's waiting for extraction, it looks a bit lonely sitting in that field.
Which road exactly? I'll be driving home from Oxford to Woodstock so could take a detour and take a peek . . . .
D.
Sedbergh
19th Oct 2004, 13:10
Instead of going straight up the main A44 Oxford-Woodstock road turn left through Yarnton at the 2nd roundabout after the A34 and head for Cassington. (Yarnton village is the one with all the speed bumps)
Just before arriving in Cassington there's a right turn (probably signposted Long Hanborough/Bladon).
It's a peculiar Y junction on a blind bend so the first right is "no entry" which forces you round the bend to the second arm of the Y where you can see what's coming the other way.
Anyway, proceed up the right turn, along a straight road, over the railway bridge & after a left & right bend start looking to your right .
Once you've seen the plane (if it's still there), turn right at the next T junction back up through Bladon towards Woodstock
BEagle
19th Oct 2004, 15:33
One hopes that the local 'yoof' aren't bright enough to follow your directions..
One of my a/c had to make a forced landing on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago in a field near Kingham. One of the first things we did was to move it to where it couldn't be seen from the road. No damage to a/c, pilot or field and after it had been checked and the fault repaired, I flew it out the following Friday.
Nothing in the papers - by far the best way.
Well, it's still there. (The directions were spot on.) Undulations on the field looked quite severe! Looks like one of the Bladon footpaths goes near it, so let's hope they get it out pretty quick.
D.
witchdoctor
19th Oct 2004, 19:32
Perhaps it's part of the fleet for the latest 'budget' ATPL course from the marketing geniuses at Oxford, and the field is actually Kidlington Bladon airfield, the new low cost alternative to Kidlington proper. :}
There didn't happen to be a group of shifty looking Mediterranean types hanging about nearby by any chance?
Sedbergh
20th Oct 2004, 09:23
BEagle
I doubt (hope!) that many of the "yoof" likely to trash planes are Prooners!
dpm
That field looked pretty soft before, and with the rain we've had overnight they'll now be lucky to extract that plane in a fortnight.
I've got a couple of photos but never did learn how to post them on pprune.
I still think the landing must have been a pretty good bit of flying - it could very easily have tripped over the nosewheel at the least
I got a couple of photos too, but my digitical camera didn't seem to want to focus in what was a pretty misty atmosphere. I'll keep a lookout whenever I'm out that way . . .
surely not
20th Oct 2004, 10:03
Still no news as to why it ended up in the field? Most unusual for there not to be a prooner in the know about such matters after so many days have passed by.
Sedbergh
29th Oct 2004, 17:12
It's finally gone! Yesterday probably (28th Oct). And I can't see any new wheel marks in the field. Was it lifted out by chopper, magicked out by Harry Potter??
Now I don't know how that plane got into the field, nor how it got out
Waaaaaaaaaah!
Somebody help please!
tmmorris
29th Oct 2004, 19:32
Allegedly (all a bit 2nd hand)...
It was a ?Mooney in for maintenance at Oxford. It was on its test flight having had its engine cleaned after ingesting sand. The pilot was the chief engineer at Oxford. The engine stopped at 1000ft after a departure from RW19 and a slight right turn - he did a fantastic job putting it down in one piece.
That's all I could find out.
Tim
(PS they took away the remains of the helo on Tuesday while I was flying!)