(Ben Jackson) wrote in message news:DYklc.13864$Ia6.1920928@attbi_s03...
Hey, if you're the guy who took off on runway 18 in the light blue and
white Piper retractable at Sunriver, OR (S21) Sunday around noon, what
the hell was wrong with your engine? With the sputtering I half expected
not to see the plane pop up above the trees... And I was really surprised
you didn't come back around to land immediately!

I'm amazed at what some people will do. A few weeks ago a Mooney
cranked up it's engine while I was doing some maint. work at my
tiedown. It sounded horrible. Missing and popping like a badly tuned
Model T. The guy taxied to the runup area and proceeded to run it up.
It sounded even worse, with some very loud backfiring. To my
amazement, the guy then takes the runway and starts his takeoff roll,
coughing and backfiring all the way down the runway. He cleared the
fence at the end of the 4,500 ft. runway by about 50 ft. and
disappeared off to the southwest.

About 5 min. later I hear a horrible noise in the pattern and see
the Mooney on a low downwind. He landed, taxied to transient parking
and stopped. His passenger got out, pulled a briefcase from the
baggage area and was literally running from the airplane toward the
parking lot. I figured the Mooney pilot would be staying for awhile.
Nope. While I was up in the pattern, I see him taxi to the runway
and take off. Last time I saw him he was headed north over a densely
populated metropolitan area at low altitude.

I didn't hear of any accident reports that Sunday, so I assume the
gods were smiling on this particular pilot that day.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)