If It Can Fly It's Probably Landing Here Now
Two gleaming Citations sit on the ramp, waiting for tugs to
bring them to Cessna's display. Next in line, a Bonanza sits,
baking on the tarmac. Behind them, the extreme far end of general
aviation: an Extra 300LP. This is a popular arrival time at
Oshkosh, and for pilots and planes that can only mean two things:
hurry up, and wait.
Out Along The Runway...
The pilots landing are battling a stiff crosswind. Factor in the
often-abbreviated patterns, the unusual ATC procedure, and the wide
range of machine performance, and now throw in the varied skill
levels of the pilots, and there was quite a show. The 99-degree
heat sapped airplane performance, too. Some of the landings were
beautiful, but some ran to the other extreme. And there was no
shortage of volunteer landing critics on hand.
"Jeebers, look at that guy," someone said as a Cessna rocked out
of a hard left base to final turn and then banked hard right to
correct for a crosswind. Then back to the left again -- he
overcorrected. Down along the runway he went oscillating wildly
from left to right till he finally was out of runway and options,
and went around. "That's his third time." For the Cessna pilot,
fourth time was lucky; he had it all together, his crosswind
correction was just right, and his tires kissed the runway like a
tentative father kissing his firstborn. Down, safe.
There was no time to dwell onthe travails of the Cessna, for the
next plane was upon us, a Diamond DA-42tdi, which displayed the
type's (and it's pilot's) short-field chops. He had to make the
same hard turn as the Cessna, and the Diamond has those long,
slender wings. Not what you want to be thinking about close to the
ground: is my wingtip reaching out for terra firma? If the pilot
was thinking about it, he didn't let it rattle him. The Diamond
smoothly rolled level, and thumped onto the runway with Austrian
solidity. "Oh, he's a pro," one of the critics said, and others
agreed.
Prangs, And Rumors Of Prangs
A truck towed a damaged airplane by, a forlorn derelict. The red
plane's belly rested on the trailer, and the cowling area betrayed
evidence of impact. "I saw that RV go in," a pilot said, shaking
his head. "He stalled in from about 70 feet. He got out OK but the
plane's gotta be a mess." We snapped a picture of the unfortunate
"RV" going by; when we looked at the picture later, the unlucky
plane was a George Pereira GP-4: the elegant triangular tail of the
wooden speedster is a give-away.
Aero-News has learned that the owner and pilot of the GP-4 was
Jim Simmons of Cheshire, Connecticut. His wife Betty was with him;
they both escaped unhurt, but the machine is substantially damaged.
A member of a GP-4 chat group reported a telephone call from
Simmons, in which he said he stalled the airplane at about 300 feet
on his base to final turn. He started recovering with full power at
the first sign of the stall, but wasn't quite able to recover in
the altitude he had.
"He wanted everyone to know he considers the mishap to be his
fault and not a problem with the aircraft or the design," the
message posted to the GP-4 Builders And Pilots Group said. Simmons
has hull insurance on the aircraft, a relative rarity in the
experimental world.
There were rumors of several other prangs, but the thread in
common was this: like Jim and Betty Simmons, all the souls on
board, are still on board their unhurt, mortal bodies. Losing an
airplane is sad, especially one that you poured heart and soul and
thousands of hours of labor into. But as Christian Kerr, one of the
pilots of the unique Dornier 24-ATT, told us, when we asked him
about flying a unique and irreplaceable airplane, "It's only a
machine... every I've flown with passengers I've carried something
unique and irreplaceable." He has a point. It might be hard or
costly, even heartbreaking, to have to replace a machine, but it's
possible.
And The Beat Goes On
While we were watching the sad promenade of Simmons's GP-4, more
airplanes arrived. Do you celebrate diversity? If so, Oshkosh is
the place to be. The Citations had been towed away but the small
traffic jam of new arrivals included a B-25 (or perhaps I should
say PBJ, because the Commemorative Air Force has the plane painted
in an attractive Marine Corps blue scheme), a pair of Tecnam Light
Sport Aircraft, and a jaunty red and white Zenith CH601. Overhead,
the Griffon Lionheart prototype, in its unmistakably bright Ford
Mustang yellow finish, maneuvered for landing. (You can tell a
Lionheart from a Beech Staggerwing several ways, but the easiest is
the absence of interplane struts. Watch Aero-News this week for
more Lionheart news!)
As we leave, four or five planes are cooking in the summer heat,
waiting for a tow. Hard-working volunteers, ranging from people who
look like they might still be eligible for Young Eagles to some
very old eagles indeed, are marshalling them carefully and
systematically. Out on the runway, more planes are landing. And
somewhere here, Jim Simmons is waiting for news from his insurance
company.
Welcome to Oshkosh. Welcome to Airventure 2005.