Small airport.
Posted on 06/16/2005 12:47:08 PM PDT by SamFromLivingston
FORT PAYNE, Ala. (AP) — Police say a 14-year-old boy is in juvenile detention today after he apparently decided he wanted to fly a Cessna aircraft.
Fort Payne Police Chief David Walker said the Rainsville youngster was apparently wandering around the Fort Payne Municipal Airport when he found a set of keys inside the cockpit.
The incident happened last night at about 11:20 p.m..
Walker said the boy started the plane's engine and after driving around the runway he took off. Police estimate the teen flew about five minutes and then landed. But he took off again and flew the plane over areas of Fort Payne for nearly a half-hour.
When the boy attempted to make a second landing, he barely missed a fence. Seconds later, according to police, the plane's engine died causing it to make a hard landing on a road near the airport.
The boy, who told police it was his first-ever flight, suffered only minor injuries.
Walker said the 1981 Cessna Two, valued at $35,000, has significant structural damaged.
The juvenile was charged with first-degree theft and giving false information to police. The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating.
Whoa....that boy must be something of a savant.
Boy! Those flight sim games sure must have gotten better.
Doing touch and goes?
This kid must ba natural to do what he did.
Nah, the plane is almost control neutral. Pretty good choice to steal if you know nothing.
Where is your plane?
I'm thinking the part about "1st ever flight" might be part of his "lying to police" charge.
Lots of questions about this tale.
One thing is for certain.... if I'd have done any like this at 14, I would have never made 15. My dad wouldn't of thought much of me stealing a plane.
Probably ran out of fuel. Kid got lucky. He could have been at a nasty altitude when it died.
"Whoa....that boy must be something of a savant."
I remember when I solo'd at the age of 45. I took off, flew the pattern and then realized that I was going to have to land the thing all by myself. Terror! Then my training kicked in and it all went beautifully. I can't believe that this kid didn't have any training.
Let me ask you a question. When I fly United I can listen to the cockpit conversations. You hear all of the radio transmissions that is. And as you know those guys about every 10 minutes are changing to a new frequency to keep up with the ground tracking etc. Do private pilots have to go through all of that as well???
To some degree, but not as much because: (1) slower and (2) lower.
My wife solo'd on her 16th birthday..14 is pretty young
without any training or some bootlegged time with pop
Yes, If you're flying in controlled airspace you do. If you're flying in uncontrolled airspace you only have to announce your intentions when landing. Don't take that for gospel as I haven't flown in years. The rules are different for instrument flight also. We've got lots of more experienced pilots on the site that could tell you a lot more.
Small airport.
Locked away in her hangar.
I hope.
;-)
I may be silly, but I'd kind of like to own an Ercoupe.
The flight simulator games today are remarkably realistic. Bet he's spent time on them. Kid gets credit for cool nerves. With no respect for people's property, he'll be in prison 10 years from now. What a waste.
Can you imagine? "Hello, this is the police, remember that plane you used to have..."
Can you imagine? "Hello, this is the police, remember that plane you used to have..."
---
Do you know the road outside Rosie's Bar...
Well, guess what!
I, too, am wondering just what the hell a Cessna 2 is. I flew both the 152 and the 172. Do ya suppose the crack journalist juse left off a couple of numbers?
Cool plane. What's the history behind it?
You have the leather hat, googles and scarf? With the open cockpit it would be neat.
There was a story a while ago about a guy taking a bulldozer and ploying into a bunch of airplanes on a field.
Strange things happen....
"Boy! Those flight sim games sure must have gotten better."
Actually, Microsoft Flight Sim 2004 is used for flight training, it is that good.
Like a date story in a Panty Thief Thread?
Some Ercoupe History:
The Ercoupe was designed between 1936 and 1940, with the first flight of the prototype in 1937. Before WW2, 112 were built and approximately 5,000 were made immediately after the war. About 400 more were built between 1958 and 1969.
The original name was derived from the name of the company, ERCO, which stood for Engineering and Research Corporation. When later companies manufactured the plane, it was called the Aircoupe.
Designed by Fred Weick and a small team, the Ercoupe was the first plane to incorporate much of the original research that Weick performed as the assistant chief of the NACA aerodynamics division.
These new features include the inability to be held in a spin, the tricycle landing gear to improve landing and take-off safety, the wholly cowled engine, and a control system in which the rudders are linked to the ailerons to simplify controlling the airplane. All these features were invented by Fred Weick and his team.
Fred Weick's design goals for this aircraft were simplicity of control and safety. He built in great visibility and ground handling. For safety, the elevator deflection of 13 degrees made stalls nearly impossible. Turning the control wheel operated nose wheel steering, ailerons and proportional rudder for coordinated turns.
In February 1946, Fred Weick received the Fawcett Aviation Award for the greatest contribution to the scientific advancement of private flying.
Forney Aircoupes were made from 1958-1959, Alon made planes from 1965-1967, Mooney made the A-2-A (Alon style) Cadet in 1968 and the Mooney M-1.0 Cadet (with a "Mooney" tail) was made from 1969-1970.
It was created to give the average Joe and easy airplane to fly.
"ERCO is "Engineering Research Corporation" whose first product was the Ercoupe. This was the first tricycle aircraft and was designed by Fred Weick. Fred is famous for many things, including the "takeoff/landing over a 50-foot obstacle" specification. He went on to design the Piper PA-28 Cherokee and others.
The Ercoupe, with its distinctive twin-tail design, was originally provided with "coordinated controls", i.e. the rudder was connected to the yoke and yaw correction was automatic - NO RUDDER PEDALS. The steerable nose wheel was connected directly to the yoke - you taxied exactly like you drive your car. This, and limited elevator travel, contributed to the result that the 'Coupe is "characteristically incapable of spinning"! You can try, but the plane will fly out of an incipient spin."
It's a pre-WWII design.
Just what I was thinking. I hate to admit it, but if he was my kid? I'd be torn between killing him dead, or severe punishment followed by flying lessons after a suitable interval.
Amen, Dash. And that's why I've always wanted one. It's the closest thing I've seen to a plane you can get in and drive like a car.
Nothing silly about that, Ercoups are cool
Coordinated directional control was accomplished solely with differential aileron movement, thus eliminating the need for coordinated movable rudder controls. The intent was that the experienced automobile driver would be able to step into the airplane and solo it with only an hour or so of flight instruction. While this was unrealistic, many people were able to solo the airplane with less than four hours of dual flight time.
I have a PA28 also... plus the one on my profile page.
Love it!
Flying out of a non-public airfield and not in controls airspace you don't even need to have a radio.
Pingable?
If they are IFR they do. If VFR it depends how close they are to a major airport.
A thing of beauty it is.
USAF , sign him up ..
Technically you can fly IFR without communication radio - from an uncontrolled field to an uncontrolled field with instrument approach without traversing controlled airspace. Get clearance before departure via phone - clearance limit time issued - the call upon landing to close flight plan...wouldn't advise it but it can be done legally - or at least it could last time I checked the FAR's (Federal Regulations) - I'm sure someone will correct me if that has been changed.
Sounds like he had some prior stick time..
Very unusual, though.
Here's the offcial press release: http://www.fortpayne.org/fortpayne/fppd/show_event.asp?ID=203
Using one of these to study for my Instrument ticket..
On this one, a certain amount of the time (with a CFII in attendance) is FAA approved as IFR-loggable.
Realistic? Right down to the armpit sweat stains on a final approach!
(but no sounds of twisted aluminum on that last one I under-shot either....)
As a minor, he won't have a felony on his record.
Does that IFR simulator have rudder pedals?
There was actually a competition for an everyman's safety plane in the 1930s. The Stearman-Hammond was one of the entries. There were about eight entries, and IIRC none won the prize!
The reason the Weick and the makers of the S-H eliminated separate aileron and rudder control inputs was because it was understood that cross-control stalls frequently led to nonsurvivable low altitude spin entries. Wolfgang Langeweische (sp?) wrote that "they spin in, and in fifty years, someone will write that they spin in." (a paraphrase but a close one; and wasn't he tragically correct).
The safest a/c in the thirties was probably the Pitcairn autogiro. It was probably safer by design than most modern gyroplanes.
There were some hairy airplanes indeed in this period, because for every degreed engineer like Fred Weick (who worked at NACA Langley in this period) there were a lot of amateurs of highly variable skills and spotty knowledge.
Kinda like today ;)
One ship called the Crouch-Bolas used two engines blowing their prop blast over the wings to get incredible STOL performance. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course, if either engine failed, you were already below VMC (this is a bad thing; you'd roll into the dead engine inexorably and hit the ground in an unsurvivable manner). Prof. Otto Koppen of MIT campaigned tirelessly against this kind of design (he would later be involved in the Helio project, a much safer low-speed plane).
Modern tiltrotors would be similarly unsafe with one engine out, but materials science has advanced enough that a crossover shaft runs both prop/rotors off either engine and a freewheeling clutch disconnects the dead engine.
Ercoupes are as much fun as they look like. You can open the windows (in the later ones, the canopies) and go into "roadster mode". There is a guy at my field who thinks he's a hot rock. He shuts down at the intersection of 16-34 and Taxiway A and then coasts down the ramp, weaving in and out of the parked a/c, to spin with a flourish and stop exactly in his tiedown spot.
In a crosswind, landing a 'coupe without rudder pedals is a lot like landing a big four-engined jet. You crab it in wings level and let the gear take the sideload. The landing gear on the 'coupe is that robust. ISTR that the original 415C, 415D etc. did not have any max crosswind component. (for the non-pilots, in a normal crosswind landing it is vitally important for the airplane to be moving parallel to the centerline of the runway, as close to the centerline as possible, and with its own axis also parallel to the runway centerline (and therefore the direction of motion). Pilots usually do this by putting the upwind wing down a little and using the rudder to keep aligned with the centreline.
You can't do that on some 4-engined jets cause you'd drag the outboard engine, and the paperwork is unbelievable.
As far as this punk joyrider is concerned -- there is one of these every few years. In 2003 (IIRC) there was a kid who got drunk and tried to steal a Bonanza. After taxiing it around he decided he better not mess with it, and stole a 172 instead. The cops found it wrapped up in a field with an open 30-pack of Bud inside, and a blood trail.
When they came for the guy -- already a multi time loser -- he greeted the cop and stuck his toothbrush in his shirt pocket... he knew he wasn't gonna be waking up at home. Amazing he lived though.
Back in the 1990s, somebody stole a 150 in (IIRC) the Seattle area, and ultimately tried to fly under a bridge (not a maneuver to be attempted spontaneously, but risk management wasn't this cat's thing, I guess).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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