Bonanza Down

http://www.pe.com/localnews/southwes...lane15.a1078.h
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Here is the full story from our local newspaper. This is my local airport,
makes it more interesting I guess.


Engine stalls on approach

AIRCRAFT: It suffers damage when the landing gear fails to deploy; the
pilot was unhurt.

07:49 AM PST on Tuesday, February 15, 2005



By LEEZEL TANGLAO / The Press-Enterprise

FRENCH VALLEY - An Encinitas pilot on his way home had to make an emergency
landing on a street just short of the airport runway early Monday evening.

David Bauman / The Press-Enterprise
Pilot Todd Gross of Encinitas talks with Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy
Ryan Renick after Gross said he was forced to crash-land into a field near
Auld Road, just outside French Valley Airport.

Todd Gross, 40, was flying his white 1982 Beechcraft A 36 Bonanza from Las
Vegas to McClellan-Palomar airport in Carlsbad when he decided to make a
stop at the French Valley Airport.

"I saw another plane in the flight pattern and I waited for it to land
ahead of me but it took too long," he said. "Then I could feel that
something was different with the fuel flow."

About 6,000 feet above the airport, his said his engine stalled.

He brought his plane onto a grassy field and eventually stopped on Auld
Road outside the airport.

Gross, who has been flying for 12 years, said he wasn't sure the exact
cause of the aircraft's trouble, beyond the stalled engine, but he
suspected that one of the plane's fuel tanks was empty.

Gross said when his fuel tanks are at full capacity, his plane could fly
about 1,100 miles. He said he thought it was full when he left Las Vegas.

Most of the plane's damage was on the underbelly of the craft when the
landing gear failed to deploy, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff Ryan Renick
said.

"Our main concern now is to get this plane back onto the airport," said
Todd Cervantes , a flight instructor with French Valley Aviation.

The plane was towed to the French Valley airport for further investigation
of the incident.

As he directed incoming traffic on Auld Road, Renick said no vehicles or
other aircraft were involved. Drivers in passing cars stopped to take
snapshots of the plane.

Gross walked away with no injuries.

"It could've been a lot worst," he said.

--
Mike Flyin'8