On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 02:09:17 -0700, SD sdatverizondot.net@ wrote in
Message-Id: :

Well, tonight will go in my book as something that I will never
forget. Tonight I learned a valuable lesson and was able to live to
tell about it.

[Candid story of engine failure during unplanned instrument approach
due to fuel exhaustion snipped]

Thank you for sharing your experience. The only thing I might
question is the absence of the mention of a GUMPS check; that may have
prevented your engine out, but it sounds like the engine stopped
before you had reached the point where you would normally have run
GUMPS.

The final flight (VFR in an Aerostar) of a former Viet Nam F-4 pilot
friend occurred while turning to final at KVNY when he apparently lost
control while turning into the dead engine (story below). I'm happy
to hear your engine out occurred on final so that you didn't need to
make any turns.


================================================== ===========
Northridge Lawyer Handled Air-Crash Cases Dead Pilot Known as
Skilled, Careful Flier
Los Angeles, Calif.; Mar 8, 1985
PATRICIA WARD BIEDERMAN

Abstract:
[Lewis M. Brody] was an experienced, safety-conscious pilot who had
survived being shot down while an Air Force flier in Vietnam,
according to Jeffrey Matz, Brody's partner in the Encino law firm of
Matz, Brody & Albert.

In the past five years, Brody had handled 12 cases involving airplane
crashes, Matz said. He said the firm on Thursday retained such a
specialist who will study Brody's crash with an eye toward a lawsuit.

Matz said the Aerostar in which Brody died was owned by the law firm.
Brody flew it several times a week, always taking along the battered
khaki flight bag he had carried in Vietnam. Like his colleagues, he
referred to the plane, in aviators' jargon, by its registration
number-Triple Seven Papa Lima (777PL).


Full Text:

The pilot killed Wednesday night when his light plane crashed into a
San Fernando Valley residence was identified Thursday as Lewis M.
Brody of Northridge, a lawyer whose specialties included air-crash
litigation.

Brody, 41, died when his Piper Aerostar crashed into a residence at
9545 Ruffner Ave. in Sepulveda.

Ken Ashton, 38, the only occupant of the house, was watching
television in the living room. He escaped from the burning building
with minor injuries by diving through a blown-out window. No one else
was hurt. The house was reduced to rubble.

Brody went down at 6:58 p.m. as he was attempting to take his disabled
plane into Van Nuys Airport, Audrey Schutte, head of the National
Transportation Safety Board team investigating the crash, said
Thursday. The cause of the crash will probably not be known for
several weeks, she said.

On Thursday, Schutte supervised the removal of the wrecked plane from
the charred site. About two dozen spectators stood on the street and
sidewalk. A neighbor said Ashton had stood silently among the
onlookers for a while.

Called Safety-Conscious

Brody was an experienced, safety-conscious pilot who had survived
being shot down while an Air Force flier in Vietnam, according to
Jeffrey Matz, Brody's partner in the Encino law firm of Matz, Brody &
Albert.

In the past five years, Brody had handled 12 cases involving airplane
crashes, Matz said. He said the firm on Thursday retained such a
specialist who will study Brody's crash with an eye toward a lawsuit.

Matz said the Aerostar in which Brody died was owned by the law firm.
Brody flew it several times a week, always taking along the battered
khaki flight bag he had carried in Vietnam. Like his colleagues, he
referred to the plane, in aviators' jargon, by its registration
number-Triple Seven Papa Lima (777PL).

"Flying was his first love," Matz said. "He used to tell me if he
couldn't fly as part of his law practice he wouldn't practice law.
He'd be a professional flier instead."

Brody lived with his wife, Bonnie; a daughter, Lauren, 5, and a son,
Jason, 3.

Matz said Brody was flying back from Costa Mesa when the accident
occurred.

"He was covering a deposition in Orange County," Matz said. "He flew
down there in the middle of the day and started back about 6:15.

"He called our office just before leaving the airport, and he called
his wife to say he was on his way. It's about a 16-minute flight."

The NSTB's Schutte was asked for specifics of Brody's last flight.
"Some of these things I could never know unless I was in the cockpit
with him," she said. "And, thank God, I wasn't."

Matz tried to reconstruct the flight, based on his knowledge of the
route and a police officer's report of witnesses' accounts.

"He was flying from John Wayne Airport back to Van Nuys, where we kept
the plane," Matz said. "When he got over the Encino
Reservoir-according to witnesses, there were about 15 witnesses-he
called `Mayday' and said he was losing power in his right engine.

"The tower flew him around to the north end of the airport. As he was
making the U-turn to land, he had to bank the plane, and about that
time the right engine caught on fire. In order to get in faster, he
pushed the left engine to the firewall. That means pushing the
accelerator all the way to the floor. When he did that, the plane
stalled, and it just went straight into a house.

"He used to tell me, if you're going to lose an engine, you don't want
to do it on final approach because you're very close to the ground,
and you don't have much time or room to make a correction.

"He must have had 900 hours in on that plane. He's flown in bad
weather. He's flown in icing conditions. Everybody who had contact
with him in the aviation business always praised him for his
competence."

Engineering, Law Degrees

Brody had a degree in mechanical engineering from California State
University, Northridge, and a law degree from the University of San
Fernando. The affable redhead took an engineer's pleasure in keeping
the Aerostar in top-flight condition, Matz said.

"He was meticulous about that plane," Matz said. "He personally
supervised all the maintenance. He took pride in knowing how each and
every item on that airplane worked. Being an engineer, he was capable
of understanding all the devices on that plane. And he always did an
extremely thorough pre-flight check."

Matz said Brody's family members were frequent passengers on the
plane, as were his law partners.

"In fact, I was supposed to be on Wednesday's flight," he said. "I was
sick with the flu."

[Illustration]
PHOTO: Federal investigator Audrey Schutte at site of plane crash that
destroyed Sepulveda home and killed pilot.