An acquaintance of mine totalled a rather expensive piece of military hardware on its first flight. By some miracle of luck and training, he and his co-pilot got out of it pretty much intact.

He tells the story that after the inevitable immediate debrief, he went to the station's flight surgeon and asked for a blood alcohol test...


"But nobody's suggesting you've been drinking"

"No, but by tomorrow they will, and by tomorrow they'll be right".

G

Sounds familiar, I believe I might just own that very Cassutt if the event took place in 1997. Much respect to him, I've always said its the one aircraft I really dont fancy having to do a forced landing in......:eek:

Perfectly airworthy. Would need a bit more left rudder than usual, perhaps.

Unusual Attitude

taybird

It would seem that we are talking about the same person, and aircraft. Yes, on the wet legs Taybird. Still at his 'altitude' his legs are a long way from his face. Both moved away from said home airfield, not sure what he is up to now. Flew a few aero's with him, and many a training fire (and drink in the club bar). Oh the tales I could tell.

Unusual Attitude, I have seen the rebuilt machine, she does look great now. I do remember said pilot having to somehow move the rudder pedals to accomodate his 'lofty' height. How to get a 7 footer (almost) into a Cassut without his feet being in the prop disc. I take it you had to shorten it.

There was talk about rebuilding it as their own design. They were going to call it the 'Colin'. Pleased that you got a hold of it

Bally,

Twas a chap with more skills than me that rebuilt her a few years back, he like me however was 6'3" ish so its probably the only Cassutt in the UK I can actually fit in.

Will be back on the display scene from next spring but limited to what I can do with her given that the LAA removed the Cassutts aerobatic clearance, still pretty nimble though so I have something entertaining worked out to make the best of her.....

Regards

UA

PS I have the old engine log book so I can see why the engine failed! Never knew an 0-200 could survive such revs! :ok:

I don't think the Cassutt ever had aerobatic approval.

Colin was an entirely new design, albeit based on the Cassutt.

I was given to understand that a previous incident of being kept at the hold for an extended period had caused the engine to overheat earlier in the season. This may have caused the initial damage that ultimately resulted in a non-standard smoke system during the somewhat shortened display.

Anyhow, bit of thread drift there. I'm sure the linen-suited man has recovered from his adventure and will be in a position to finance a rebuild for what looked like a very pretty Moth. It would be a shame to see it go to waste.

I learnt to fly before the widespread use of mobile phones. Recommendation for a precautionary forced landing was, if possible, to choose a field close to a pub.

Still taught in glider training. Size, shape, slope, surface, approach, livestock/crops, pub.

Of course, forced landings are a bit more common there. And it might take a few hours for your mate to arrive with the glider trailer, vs. only a few minutes for the local police/fire brigade in case of an emergency with a powered aircraft.

Totally off topic here but a friend of mine once landed in a field during a gliding competition.
He landed close to a farm house and being a fairly short 17 year old he didn't really look his age.
To his surprise he landed next to a brothel/stripclub/sexclub.
The girls took a liking to him and spoiled him rotten feeding him cookies and lemonade till his pick up crew arrived. Lucky b'stard....:suspect:

Oh to have "chicken ranch" as the landing airfield in one's logbook!

G

There's one next to Kirkbride. Allegedly :sad:

Not that I've bin.

SGC

flippin eck this A/C was in france a couple of weeks ago and we went for a ride in it.

Very bad luck, the guy was charming, excellent company and a very diligent and methodical pilot from what I could see.

Just goes to show how unforgiving of even the smallest mistakes our little hobby is

As for heading to the pub.. good on him.. far too much elf and safety in this day and age for my liking

:D

its not the safety crowd you need to worry about unfortunately in the UK. Its some over zealouse pratt of a copper that see's an easy collar.

Even if eventually it works out that you don't get done it can be months and months of agro and large legal bills.

Personally I wouldn't......

sadly you are probably right Mr Jock... one of the many reasons i don't live there any more

I think there's a difference between a chicken farm and a chicken ranch.

it's all just birds wandering around in the certain knowledge that sooner or later they are going to end up stuffed :uhoh:

No Delta V he is perfectly correct and using the correct context which doesn't involve anything KFC would sell.

I had it pointed out to me from the air years ago.

Hardly surprising he was in the pub later. I forget which book it was which suggested that the ideal field in which to carry out a forced landing should be close to a road and have a pub in one corner.

Nobody hurt, and I hope the aircraft can be rebuilt, too.