Lake Renegade Down After Engine Failure

A 67-year-old pilot walked away from an off-airport landing in a Lake Renegade Tuesday following an engine failure.

Pilot William Booth told the regional newspaper The Saratogian that he has been flying for 48 years and has nearly 4,000 hours in his logbook. That experience likely came in handy as the engine on his LA4-250 airplane stopped on a flight from Saratoga County Airport in Milton, NY to his summer home in Blue Mountain Lake in Hamilton County NY.

When the engine on the Renegade failed, Booth reportedly selected a field about seven miles from the airport on which to land, but did not notice that the field had a rise that would keep him from touching down where he originally intended.

The Saratogian reports that once he cleared the rise, he put the airplane down at about 70 miles per hour ... faster than the normal landing speed. Booth said he kept repeating the old adage "fly the crash," and made what he called a "hockey stop" with the airplane to avoid hitting a telephone pole or crossing a road at the edge of the field.

Booth, who is from Florida, survived the landing with minor cuts and scrapes on his arms, but the accident left one fewer Lake Renegade in airworthy condition.

(Lake Renegade pictured in file photo. Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov