(Badwater Bill) wrote in message ...
On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:23:29 GMT, "Yosimite Sam"
wrote:

Bill, I noticed in one of your posts that you knew Allen Barklage. I never
knew the man, but had heard his name mentioned often. I've know of the
"hijack" story, but have never heard the details. Do you know them? Would
you share?

Howard



Oh, yeah, Allen restled the gun away from the psycho when he was
hijacked. He flew the helicopter and got the gun away from the guy
while in flight. And Allen was the only pilot on the helicotper. It
think it was a Jet Ranger. He landed and the guy was arrested. I'll
have to call Fred Stewart and ask him about the details. I heard
Allen talk about it years ago but didn' t pay much attention to it.
It was sort of like a James Bond thing he did. Very Ballsy. It was
like Beer Talk in those days, but it did really happen.

BWB

Allen told this story at the 1998 P.R.A. International Fly-In.

It was a woman who chartered the flight. She wanted to sit in the
back to see the sights, and unfold her map. Allen said that he thought
it was strange that she kept giving directions like, "Turn due east at
the river", etc. Not what he expected from your average rubbernecker
on her first sightseeing flight.

I don't remember the whole sequence of events that led up to him
turning around and looking at her, but when he did he was looking down
the barrel of a hand cannon (.44 Magnum IIRC).

He said that he trimmed it to pitch up when he let go of stick, and
wrestled the gun away, and ended up shooting her with it. He got the
aircraft back under control, and landed.

The cops told him later that the woman's plan was to hijack the
aircraft, and have him fly over to the prison where her
boyfriend/husband/shack-up was, and break him out.

That's the basic story, but Allen was a good storyteller, and there
was lot's more to it. I don't know if anyone recorded it though.


Mike