David Megginson wrote:
Confirm this with someone who knows better, but from what I've heard,
you need only about 20 ft of deceleration to have a chance of
surviving a landing in a Cherokee/172/Musketeer-class aircraft. That
suggests that setting down in a developed area (an unoccupied part,
preferably) might be survivable.

Tom Pappano wrote:
I would think, in a "172" or similar class airplane, if you have your
seatbelts and shoulder harnesses on, flaps down, minimum controllable
airspeed, and *maintain control*, you should be able to land on (or
into) almost anything and survive with minor injury. I know of two
landings on top of houses that were both "walk aways".

I've heard this too. And it makes sense to me. And I would shoot for
trees if that were the best option and I had time and altitude to pick
the spot. The problem with the area surrounding PDK is that it is so
densely developed one would be hard pressed, especially in a low
altitude emergency situation, to pick an appropriate and unoccupied place.

I personally would not deliberatly shoot for a house; can't tell who's
inside.

The biggest issue for me around PDK is powerlines. There are multiple
multilane roads on three sides of PDK, but even if they weren't *always*
occupied by heavy traffic, they are criss-crossed with power lines every
few hundred feet. Snag a powerline, and you've lost control, at the
very least.

Take a look at www.terraserver.com; search for Lat: 33.873596938 and
Lon: -84.30184815. All the trees you see surrounding the airport are in
someone's (tiny) yard, except for a stretch just off the end of 27 (the
least used runway). There's a golf course off west, but if you can
glide to that, you're high enough to get back to the airport; plus it's
at 90 degrees to the main runways anyway.

Like I said, I figure in this particular place, the best way to increase
my chances of survival is get as much altitude within the shortest
distance as possible.

--
David Hill
david at hillREMOVETHISfamily.org
Sautee-Nacoochee, GA, USA

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