New Owner Practices Emergency Procedures

Robert Walker, 41, and Robert Walker Jr, 12, were on a trip from their home near Canton (OH) to Detroit, in the 1966 model C-150 that Dad had just gotten.

To use the senior Walker's words, "It appears as though we ran out of fuel." He told the newspaper that he checked the gas on the gauges, and should have had a quarter tank.

He floated down, nose-high, in a bumpy, lumpy farm field on Township Road 1353 off U.S. 42, just north of Ohio 603, shy of the Mansfield (OH) airport.

The landing was, by all accounts, darned good; the airplane suffered no discernable damage. Walker got some local ice fishermen to bring him some (no doubt, aviation) gas, and he attempted to take off. That particular action wasn't destined to succeed. The bumpy ground made control difficult, and he nailed some trees near the end of his improvised strip. This time, the plane earned repair work, to its port wing, fuselage, and empennage.

"I was fine with it," he told the Mansfield News Journal's reporter, from the back of an Ohio Highway Patrol trooper's cruiser. "I didn't panic." He added, "I obviously don't plan on anything like this again." He's been flying since 1992.

**   Report created 1/21/2003   Record 18  **
IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 8555G        Make/Model: C150      Description: 150, A150, Commuter, Aerobat
  Date: 01/19/2003     Time: 2045
  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Substantial
LOCATION
  City: ASHLAND   State: OH   Country: US
DESCRIPTION
  ACFT HIT A TREE ON TAKEOFF FROM A FIELD, ASHLAND, OH
INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:  1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
WEATHER: METAR MFD 192152Z 21018G26KT 10SM CLR M09/M16 A2979 RMK PK WND 21026
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Take-off      Operation: General Aviation
  Departed: BEACH CITY, OH              Dep Date: 01/19/2003   Dep. Time: 2015
  Destination: MANSFIELD, OH            Flt Plan: NONE         Wx Briefing: U
  Last Radio Cont: MANSFIELD APRCH/ASHLAND`
  Last Clearance: UNK
  FAA FSDO: CLEVELAND, OH  (GL25)                 Entry date: 01/21/2003