Plane Crash

It was a clear sunny Sunday on July 25th 2010.  I had scheduled a sight seeing flight for some friends of a friend.  He had company from England and wanted me to fly them over the falls by Tumbler Ridge B.C. ( see earlier post for Kanuseo falls.)  The second passenger was a resident of Fort St. John.  I had declined the third passenger due to being near max.weight without the fourth person

.  ( you can click on the pictures to enlarge.)

The winds were steady at about 12 knots that morning when we met at the Dawson Creek airport.  I told my passengers that the area they wished to view was nestled in the mountains and because of ground turbulence it could get rather unpleasant.  They wished to continue with the flight so I informed them that we would go however should they feel at all ill they should immediately inform me and we would turn back.  We experienced minor turbulence upon take-off which soon smoothed out once we reached altitude.  We enjoyed the flight till we reached the valley where we began descending  towards the falls. We were experiencing minor turbulence since we began our decent into the valley.   We were approximately 500' from the valley floor when a passenger indicated that she was feeling rather ill.  I immediately turned around and began to ascend....too little too late..... the passenger projectile vomited all over the dash and floor.  Apparently she had blueberries and cherry coke before we left. ( I'll just leave that to your imagination.)  Looking down to my right was Tumbler Ridge airport less than 500' below us.  Now I do not like Tumbler Ridge airport at the best of times.  Being nestled in the mountains with very uneven terrain, up hill both ways, ( yes that's possible and true) makes it a tricky strip to land.  Add the 15knot winds doesn't help.  However the wind was a direct head wind and I know what it's like to feel ill in the air so  decided to land so the passenger could get some air and we could try to clean up the plane somewhat.

 We were already traveling downwind right and I had been monitoring the airports channel.  There was no traffic.  I called a downwind right, turned base and then final.  I  throttled back to 1500 rpm and set 30 degrees flap. I set the glide to land on the apron.  My air speed was 80 mph.  too fast... I applied full flap which brought my speed down to just over 70mph.  My glide was still good, aimed right for the start of the apron. We were approaching from the top of the google image above.  You can see the clear cut of trees in line with the runway.  It was when we neared the top of the tree line that we began to sink. The wind below the tree line changed and I no longer had the airspeed required to fly.   It was clear that we no longer would make the runway apron. No problem, a small burst of power generally corrects the problem. I applied full power but continued to sink.  I recalled during one of my flight lessons when my instructor was teaching overshooting.  He was in control of the demonstration and when he pulled up from the touchdown, unknown to him I "helped" out by reaching over and flipping the switch to raise the flaps.  He sat up straight and at attention as we experienced a slight "sink".  He soon discovered what I had done and used the opportunity to explain to me the cause of drag.  Flaps cause drag which allows for slower flight, however you also need air speed to create lift.  It is a tough balance to try to figure out when you are in such close proximity to the ground and you are attempting to make your craft fly!  I had aborted the idea of landing and just wanted to fly! I do believe we made the apron with a contact bounce.   I tried dropping  15 degrees of flap to try to gain some airspeed but it didn't seem to help.  It is a real inner battle when everything within you says, " pull up! Pull up!! and yet you know that if you do you will stall the aircraft and do a nose dive into the ground.  Yet you continue to sink! I was now  too close to the ground to push the stick  to a nose down attitude to gain speed. The best I could hope for was a controlled "hard" landing.  We were about to make contact again and I could no longer resist the urge to pull back.  I noticed that in my flair the right wing was higher in the air. I was about to correct that when the upper wing stalled and we "slammed" into the runway.  I believe the right wing and right landing gear struck the runway at the same time.  All we heard was a large "crunch" as we struck the runway.  The engine instantly stopped running and we slid, scraping,  approximately 150' down the runway and slid off the right side.  All I remember thinking was, " wow....that was smooth!" Nothing in the plane even moved, except for the keys falling out of the ignition. 

Everyone seemed to be fine so we exited the aircraft to observe the damage.  All three landing gear were sheared off and laying quite close together about 75' back in the middle of the runway. I walked over and cleared them from the runway. The right wing was curled up at the tip yet the wing tip was not even cracked. The right and left wings were damaged at the landing gear connections.

The prop was turned into curly fries.   Tumbler Ridge airport has no personnel and no activity.  No emergency phones and no cell phone reception.  I removed the back seat and climbed into the tail to turn off the automatic locator's transmitter. We then walked nearly a mile down to the highway and hitched a ride to Tumbler Ridge town center. ( Approximately a 15min. ride.)  Once there we phoned our friend and requested he drive the 1 1/2 hr to come get us.

Once back home I phoned Tumber Ridge public works emergency phone contact and reported the incident.  I also e-mailed a report to transport Canada.  It was treated as an incident and no investigation was conducted.  I collected insurance on the airplane. 

My instructor once told me that any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.  Any landing where the plane can fly again is a great landing.  I guess this was a good landing, however it was not great.  The plane was written off.  I could have replaced the plane with one of equal or better condition from the proceeds of the insurance.  However it is hard to justify the expense of an airplane when you don't have one.  I have decided that i need to pay off my mortgage before i purchase a new plane.  I also know more now and would want a faster more powerful airplane that wouldn't give me soo much trouble getting over the mountains.  What I would want doesn't exist for under $400k.  I plan to keep up my license and will be continuing with my posts.   It will just be from rental planes.  What I miss most is the idea that the plane is sitting there waiting for me to take off whenever I want.  There is a real freedom in that.  Maybe some day I can get that freedom back.  For now i will be content just to be.