Just saw this on the news. Hope he is ok. One of the best spokesmen/ GA advocates there is.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/harrison-ford-injured-plane-crash-n318301

Looks like he did pretty well, considering the circumstances.

I'm very sorry to see this in the news. Hoping it's just bumps and bruises.

Hope he's back to flying soon!!!

Glad he's ok!! But now I can see the local residents around the airport and the local Guvment putting up more of a fight to close that airport. Errr!!

Closing this airport will not affect me, but I just hate seeing airports get closed for ignorant reasons!! (Anyway...... That's a whole other thread).

Bet he missed Chewbacca. That dude was a good mechanic.

His son twitted (is that a word?) that's he's bruised up, at the hopsital, etc... but ok .

Hope he's ok...

Harrison has a huge estate on the snake river in Jackson Hole... has his own strip and a bunch of planes including a beautiful Beaver... a couple years ago Jean and I were in Jackson Hole and took a float trip down the snake ... the trip passes his estate which extends for several miles along the river... we were enjoying the scenery when a cessna ,looked like a 206 came screaming down the river passing over us at about 200 feet... he continued down stream and landed somewhere out of sight.. the guide on our boat said Harrison enjoys doing that when he returns to the house....Sandra Bullock also has a home overlooking the river .....

lesuther wrote:Hope he's ok...

LOL! Their hats must be glued to their heads.

Santa Monica is extremely congested. I have flown there. Ford is blessed to have survived.

Off topic:

On an island long long ago ...

Ford was waiting behind me at the AVGAS self server in Lihue, Kauai. My wife recognized him and freaked! Ford was flying a red bi-plane, I had an old C172M. He then preceded to do touch and goes in the pattern, he is a real pilot, not a poser. His G4 was there too. The N was looked up!

Poor guy, most days I envy him, not today! Not for the hard landing, that is what it is and we can all relate. But the hyper media focus on the event, he's already being portrayed as a doofus and a hero and everything in between. I'd like to see him make a single statement "shit happens". Agreed, he NOT a rich poser, he's a rich guy real pilot and seems like a good dude also. Injuries sound minor, more hype.

courierguy wrote:Poor guy, most days I envy him, not today! Not for the hard landing, that is what it is and we can all relate. But the hyper media focus on the event, he's already being portrayed as a doofus and a hero and everything in between. I'd like to see him make a single statement "shit happens". Agreed, he NOT a rich poser, he's a rich guy real pilot and seems like a good dude also. Injuries sound minor, more hype.

I agree Tom. Having spent way too much time in SoCal. I can only imagine the local news outlets going crazy over this incident and blowing it up ten fold out of proportion!

100 years ago, I learned to fly at KSMO. The golf course is right off the end of the runway, slightly left of course line. Quite a few airplanes have visited that golf course.

He's pretty lucky that the engine failed just on takeoff as opposed to 30 seconds later. There is nothing but solid city between that golf course and the next possible landing spot (Santa Monica beach, which would have been really crowded today with our warm weather).

For those who have not ever flown a PT-22, it was specifically designed to be far more twitchy and spin-prone than its "pretty sister", the Ryan STA. This I am told is the reason for the slight wing sweep, to make it drop a wing more easily while getting Air Corps cadets ready for high performance airplanes. A guy gave me a ride in one, and took great joy in demonstrating how it would snap roll when you pulled too hard on a loop entry, or pulled too hard coming down the backside of a loop.

The relevance is that low altitude dead stick maneuvering, the dreaded "dead stick 180", etc. is definitely much more of a widowmaker scenario in that airplane. So if Ford was not in exactly that place when it quit, he would have had two really bad choices: Straight ahead and into a crowded city street, or a very risky and bad-odds dead stick turn.

But alas, celebrity aviator or not, this incident will be the beginning of the end for Santa Monica airport. The citizenry recently voted to give the city council the full power to keep or kill the airport, and it's only a matter of time before those filthy slimy real estate vermin start sniffing around the politician's offices.

Nosedragger wrote:Bet he missed Chewbacca. That dude was a good mechanic.

lol

This is priceless... According to CNN "aviation expert" Mary Schiavo, " the older airplanes get, the more likely they are to crash." "They get a lot more dangerous." "You have to follow a special aging aircraft protocol."

Guess you don't have to actually know what you're talking about to be a CNN aviation expert.

http://www.krtv.com/story/28277817/harr ... olf-course

Gump

GumpAir wrote:This is priceless... According to CNN "aviation expert" Mary Schiavo, " the older airplanes get, the more likely they are to crash." "They get a lot more dangerous." "You have to follow a special aging aircraft protocol."

Guess you don't have to actually know what you're talking about to be a CNN aviation expert.

http://www.krtv.com/story/28277817/harr ... olf-course

Gump

Yeah...... And some of us FOX News watching dipwits are "Ignorant" yahoos!!! Blah hahaha!!!!

GumpAir wrote:This is priceless... According to CNN "aviation expert" Mary Schiavo...

Didn't they take her off life support several years ago? Something about a "persistent vegetative state" or something?

GumpAir wrote:This is priceless... According to CNN "aviation expert" Mary Schiavo, " the older airplanes get, the more likely they are to crash." "They get a lot more dangerous." "You have to follow a special aging aircraft protocol."

Guess you don't have to actually know what you're talking about to be a CNN aviation expert.

http://www.krtv.com/story/28277817/harr ... olf-course

Gump

I think i need to go lie down now, The stupid is strong with this one.

The fox reporter didn't have a clue.... Wings are designed to come off...the propellor is like an excavator...dug the ditch. To me it looks like he did a damn good job clearing the trees....belly flopped her into a very small area.