How do I hydroplaning the wheels?

I bet they were looking for Ibex and saw the first dry lake bed heading west. I too have landed on Sevier Lake years ago but we drove a car across it first.

Its always muddy but a few dry days can make the top crust dry out and make you think its dry as a bone. ATV's get stuck in the middle of it weekly.

Hope all is well-

Not me though I am pretty close. Landed at Delle for fuel. Am in Provo now with fam.

Tim

Not me!!

qmdv wrote: Landed at Delle for fuel.

Tim

How much was fuel at Delle, Tim. And I take it is Non-Ethanol??

MikeMl wrote:http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4615224

The KSL story has been updated after I posted the link:

Now it says:
"Pilot Errol Spaulding and passenger Dale Cresap, both of Idaho, were enroute from Idaho Falls to Lake Havasu when they attempted to land a homemade Rans S-7 aircraft in the lakebed of Sevier."

58Skylane wrote:...How much was fuel at Delle, Tim. And I take it is Non-Ethanol??

Most fuel in Utah is Ethanol free. Some jobbers are hauling some in from Las Vegas which contains 7-8%. Mid grade in Salt Lake County (which is what both Petersen and EAA STC require; I have one of each) was $2.95 yesterday. I haven't been to Delle for a while, but they were usually 10-15c more than the stations in the SL Valley.

qmdv wrote:Not me though I am pretty close. Landed at Delle for fuel. Am in Provo now with fam.

Tim

You gonna be out flying tomorrow Tim??

Sorry to get off topic.......I paid $3.37 for 87 octane at the Tesoro in Emmett.

Spaulding had been told that it was safe to land in the "hard pan" of the old lake bed and was unaware that the lake bed is actually very muddy this time of year.

Upon landing, the wheels of the airplane sunk roughly 8 inches into the mud. It came to a stop with its nose leaned forward, putting its propeller in the mud.

Neither Spaulding nor Cresap was injured, but rescue crews had a difficult time getting to aircraft to get them out. A hover craft was used in the rescue.

The "Hard Pan" is about 5 miles further west. Oops.

Reading some of the comments about the news article is interesting as well.

Quote: able to afford the maintenance right now. People are flying out of annual with known problems that they feel "are not a problem"

It's expensive.... But hire an A&P and get your planes looked at on schedule... Could save you from headlines. End Quote.


Above is a comment from the news article. I don't know of any pilots that let there planes go out of annual. What's this person talking about. Probably has nothing to do with the incident!

Drag it, drag it, drag it, drag it, then drag it again to make sure!!!!
It's ski season now.....

Paul

Three things:

1. I'm impressed it didn't go over on it's back.

2. I wasn't sure how strong the gear was on those, but it must be strong enough, to drag through all that mud.

3. How is he getting it out?

I will be leaving sunday morning back to Nor Cal. anybody in this area or on route going to lunch some place. I would divert for a good BS event thant included a chile cheese dog.

Delle is overpriced Mogas but still way under any 100LL in the area that I know of.

I think I may do a low flyby to look at the plane stuck in the mud. How much plywood would it tke to get that plane off the mud.

Tim

Looking at my Utah Benchmark map, the a note at the top of the lake area that says "Caution: Muddy, Overland travel not advised".

We now have some video of the landing site:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4615224

I feel sorry for this guy, his plane looks nice and the lakebed soooo inviting. One gotztabee careful.

I know a 83 year old guy that got pissed at his insurance carrier cuz the hull ins on his Bonanza was too high. He canceled his hull cus he said that in 20,000+ flying never an incident. Three weeks later he did a wheels up landing or skid to full stop.

Hope this guy had hull and all his ducks are in order.

Tim

The video says it was an emergency landing. Wonder if it was a bladder emergency From the length of his tracks it looks like he did a good job of his soft field technique, it was just way too soft.

As for planes flying out of annual, a friend of mine is shopping around for a Taylorcraft and I was amazed at how many he's looked at that are several years out of annual, but still being flow regularly. One had several crushed or bent ribs visible through the fabric and was being flown that way.

Phil