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Fri, Jan 21, 2005

On Thin Ice: Frozen-Lake Emergency Landing Goes Wrong

What Was A Champ Is Now Water Pollution

Lee Hilbert, of Algonquin, IL, was on his way to Lake Lawn Lodge in Delavan, WI when his engine quit just a mile from his destination airfield. Given the cold weather these days, it seemed like frozen Delavan Lake was the perfect place to set down.

Unfortunately, he picked the one place in the lake where the flowing currents keep the ice from freezing solidly, and Hilbert's Aeronca Champ (file photo of type, above) wound up plunging into a hole and nosing over. Hilbert, who's been flying for seven years, scrambled to safety, unhurt. It was 0730 Tuesday.

But just when he must have been thinking that it sure could have come out worse, it did. Since the accident, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which takes an extremely dim view of machinery in the lake, is threatening poor Hilbert with $440 a day in fines. See, his unlucky Champ is now considered water pollution.

FMI: www.dnr.state.wi.us

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