182 Down at 4N1

Yikes! I have most of those books. How has his recovery gone?

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"John Ousterhout" wrote in
message news:rfSUd.16357$r55.8054@attbi_s52...
Marco Leon wrote:
Did I read correctly that the pilot's 8 year old son died from a crash
there
in 1997?

Man, that's gotta be brutal for his family.

It was poorly worded in the story.

The 1997 Long-EZ crash at 4N1 severely injured pilot James Gleick and
killed his 8-year-old son.

Gleick is a well-known science writer, author of "Chaos: Making a New
Science", "Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman", and
"Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything"

- J.O.-

Has anyone here used KEYHOLE to view ("fly") approaches to airports
where accidents occur?

Bob Lee Ross (Rosspilot) was apparently
in the pattern at the time. Someone was quoted as saying that the
pilot
reported "engine problems" on the CTAF.

If he did, I didn't hear it.

I was on the right downwind . . . about 2/3 of the way. I heard him
self-announce his takeoff, but I didn't watch the roll because there
was a Citabria in the pattern ahead of me on base, and I was doing
pre-landing checks and watching it.

The lady pilot in the Citabria announced on her final that a plane had
gone down off the departure end of 6. I looked and saw nothing unusual
(except no C-182 climbing out) so I queried her to "say again". She
did, and then said she was going to land, taxi to the end of the
runway, and call 911.
I decided to break off my approach and fly over to the area and
confirm. I could see nothing at first . . . all white w/ snow . . .
then suddenly it burst into flame and thick black smoke and there it
was.
I called NY Approach immediately and reported the plane down and the
location. Then I photographed the scene (as any professional
photographer worth a damn would do) and landed.

The airport was closed, and the crash scene was adjacent to the only
access road in or out. It was wrapped in yellow tape. I (and anyone
else inside) could not leave. After an hour or so, they opened a
single lane and I left.
Since then, my phone has not stopped ringing.
I have provided imagery to the FAA and the NTSB, as well as the many
newspaper publishers who have called me.

The airport has been my home field for 3 years. Yes, the wind can be
difficult, but you get used to
it. The runway is long, well-lit, with beautiful VASIs at both ends.
It has been a difficult couple of days.

www.Rosspilot.com

wrote in message
oups.com...

....accident description snipped...

Thanks for that account, Lee. It can't have been easy to write it. Like
most readers of this list, I've had both pilots & their families in my
thoughts and prayers.

I've been to 4N1 several times for practice, most recently about two weeks
ago. Wind at that time was 10G15, nearly perpendicular to the runway.
Landing was challenging, but not something even a low time pilot like me
(~240 hrs) couldn't accomplish. I did come in high once and felt there was
too much useless runway behind me, so I stopped and taxied back instead of
doing a touch-and-go. It's a nice field in a beautiful setting.