We are supposed to learn from others mistakes so we don't make them ourselves. Despite having friends that have had similar experiences and having discussed this subject on here many times, I still managed to screw up and subjected myself to learning these lessons for myself. A t-shirt I'd preferred not to have collected. So, since a lot of people have wondered what happened, and in a hope to help someone either avoid the same mistake or to get through the aftermath of their own mistake...and maybe as a little bit of my own penitence for my own mistake...I decided to post about it.
In early February, I grabbed a good friend of mine, also a pilot, to go on a flight to check out some radios I had some work done on. I hadn't flown as much as I would have liked in the last month and was anxious to get a flight in that wasn't just a quick hop to test my navaids. It was a beautiful day. Clear, low 20s, and a light wind out of the northwest.
Once airborne, a quick check showed my navaid still wasn't fixed. Disappointing. With that done, it was time to just enjoy being out on a beautiful day. I headed west to go check out some of our landing sites in the northwest dessert with a general idea of where I wanted to go. The first place we made a few low passes. It looked pretty good with just a trace of snow on it. Next to the center of the strip was some standing water and since this place has a tendency to get soft in the middle, I decided to pass.
From here I hadn't decided where to go next. I almost decided to start back towards home to hit one more place on the way back, but instead headed to a dry lakebed that we frequent. When we got there, I was surprised to see it covered in snow. We made two low passes and saw some vehicle tracks across the lakebed. From those tracks, the snow only looked an inch or two deep. We swung around for a third pass and curiosity got the best of me. I knew better. I knew not to mess with an unverified surface, especially snow. We've all seen and talked about planes that did and ended up bent. Yet I still didn't remember those lessons. I didn't want to land, just drag a wheel briefly to churn it up to see what the surface was like so we could get a better idea on the next pass. I was hoping in the near future to come out and do some shooting...maybe some coyote hunting.
So, on that third low pass, I decided to drag a wheel. A little lower...a little lower...still no bump to tell me it's time to firewall it. A little lower...... It happened so fast. Like a hand reached up and grabbed the left main and pulled us down. In about 6 seconds, we were at rest, upside down in our seats. It wasn't violent. The reason for the accident, beyond my own stupidity, had actually also been our cushion. The snow dissipated the energy very quickly. As we nosed over and went vertical, I remember thinking, "Oh, she's going to fall back over on her gear." But that didn't happen. We ended up on our back and there we sat...upside down. The snow ended up being ankle deep. Not bad, but it had a crust to it, and that crust made the drag increase very rapidly and sucked the wheel down.
My first thought was to not undo my seatbelt and I told my friend the same. I checked for leaking fuel (later I realized the fallacy in this because it was all below us) and got the master switch off. Once I had braced myself, I released the belt and fell into a pile on the aircrafts ceiling. It took a minute to get my long legs in a position to be able to get out of the plane. The door stewards were a welcomed help in opening the door and keeping it opened once the handle was turned. Out of the plane, I went around to help my friend out. With both of us out and verified that no one was hurt (except for a cut on the back of my hand and a jammed finger), the swearing, kicking, crying ensued for the next 5 minutes as the realization settled in that I had just wrecked my beautiful airplane.
With that out of my system, I became focused at the task at hand. I knew we had cell service out there so that was good. First a call to my wife, then my mechanic, and then to my insurance company. I had forgotten to charge my phone the night before and had planned to charge it in the plane, but forgot to plug it in. After the first round of calls I was soon down to 9%. Not good. Luckily I had a portable charger on board and was able to get it back to 60% or so. Before long we had help on the way. Rather than trying to explain to people where we were, a really handy tool was the ability to "send current location" via text from my iPhone. We did have my spot going and, to his credit, cstricker, who usually monitors me when he gets my flying messages, actually called me to make sure I had gotten on the ground ok. He hadn't received my "on the ground safe" message and when he checked my current location, it showed out on the desert. He had no idea what had happened.
Although it was a nice day, it was in the teens with the windchill. I had elected to wear my winter boots, which was a smart decision. We had good winter gear, but I had forgotten my gloves and it took me over an hour to find one of my work gloves that were in the plane. We had all my gear gear in the plane: sleeping bags, tent, heater, food, etc. So had we needed to spend the night, we would have been fine. But it did make me realize how quickly things could get bad if we were hurt or not in a place to make contact with someone.
For the first hour or so, I found it very hard to focus. My mind was spinning. I had to force myself to be task oriented, prioritize, and focus on one thing at a time. I can't imagine how much more difficult his would have been if one of us had been seriously injured. My first task was to get a tarp laid out and get all my gear unloaded and set out on it. Things flew everywhere. Being around an in an inverted aircraft was very disorientating. I kept going to the wrong side of the airplane to get stuff out.
Once all the big stuff was out, I grabbed Walmart bags I had and started to collect all the little stuff that had flown everywhere. While doing this, I saw a set of keys behind the rudder peddles. I thought that was odd since I'd never seen them before. Looking at them closely, I saw they were rental car keys. I yelled to my friend and asked what car he drove today. He said he had a rental because his was in the shop. I held them up and told him he might need these. They had been in his pants pocket! I also found a pitot static tube cover and a small white pocket knife on the ceiling that I had never seen before. The airworthiness certificates that was in the pocket next to my left foot, as well as my camera remote that was between my legs on my seat stayed missing for nearly 3 weeks after the recovery. I eventually found them. The remote was sitting on top of the elevator pulley above the pilot's right rudder peddle and the airworthiness certificate was between the dash top that had separated and fallen an inch or two. It looked like someone has filed it in there. Stuff went everywhere.
With the stuff unloaded, we waited. In all we were out there about 4 hours. With four wheel drive, they were able to drive right to us. Before long we had all my stuff loaded in the SUV and I had the plane doors locked and secured. On the way home, I contacted the FAA and had a conference call with them and the NTSB. Over the following weeks, things went smoothly with all of the above. The NTSB wrapped up their investigation. The FAA came and looked at the plane to verify damage and wanted to know what I had learned from it. They all were good to work with and sympathetic. AOPAIA and AIG were excellent to work with. A group of friends, including a few that flew out in their Cub, my mechanic and I recovered the plane 4 days later. In the end, although it was repairable, the insurance wanted too much to retain it. As much as I wanted to fix it, any surprises would have quickly been money out of pocket. So, we decided to take the money and look for a replacement plane.
Through this whole time, I was heartbroken over the plane and very embarrassed that I had made such a stupid decision. I don't think I had ever become ungrateful for the fact that I had a plane to fly, but I had started to take it for granted. All of a sudden, it was gone. Not only what I love to do but also my connection to my flying friends and community. I know that the important thing was that we were ok and that metal can be replaced. But man, I was still so heartbroken. I'm very thankful for good friends that reached out who had gone through this before or who knew I needed some support.
Now for the strange twist in all of this. As we left that day, my friend saw a truck on a nearby ridge. When I spoke to my company, one of their only questions was whether there was any news coverage. I assured them that this was in a remote place and there wouldn't be any. I had to go back to work the next day and, when I landed in JFK and turned my phone on, my heart sank as texts started rolling in. That truck on the ridge belonged to a coyote hunter that has a business taking people out to hunt them. The local paper picked it up after the hunter called the sheriff. Then the a news outlet in SLC picked it up and a reporter showed up on our doorstep. To their credit, KSL didn't use my name and were very respectful to Dee. We hadn't told the kids and when she stepped outside to talk to him, I think he picked up on that. Although the first paper did use my name, KSL didn't and made the story more about the hunter and his business and finding strange things in the desert. Although how they portrayed how it was found was wrong, my wife made the best point: better that they were repeating his name and his business's name rather than my name! It then got picked up nationally. A friend from Wyoming and another from Montana recognized the plane and reached out to check on me. Then I ended up flying with a friend from Maine at work who asked how my plane was. When I told him that was a long story he said, "Well at least it's not like that one they found in the desert!" It took me telling him 3-4 times and pictures before he would believe that it was me. Luckily that died down fast. I don't know if everyone here was sleeping or just showing a lot of respect. I like to think it was the latter, so thank you.
Lessons learned:
Man, there have been a lot of them. I screwed up and made a bad decision. I never should have even thought about dragging it. I knew better. And if I just had to, I should have tried to use surrounding cues to better asses the area. Snow depth against the sagebrush at the edge of the dry lake bed or more recent tracks I had seen on a nearby dirt road. I learned how important being prepared for the elements is and how overwhelming an event like this can be. How hard it can be to focus and how much of an obstacle that would be in a bad situation. I learned how important having a charged phone is and a way to recharge it, as well as tracking devices such as spot. I was reminded of the value of good friends that dropped everything to help and have helped me through the emotional roller coaster ride that followed.
We were lucky and I know it could have been worse. I'm thankful for a wife that has let me replace the plane and will let us keep doing what I love. I'm thankful for friends that are still willing to get in a plane with me. I'll be a better pilot as a result of this. A friend recently went through some training where they emphasized that you should be trying to talk yourself out of every landing and if you have question about the success of any landing surface, best to leave it alone. My mentality has definitely shifted to one of protecting the plane and its occupants all the time, not just when my family is onboard...and to be more conservative. I still plane on getting the wheels dirty, but I will be more cautious and picky about where I do it. I know I need to be on my best behavior for not only my wife, but also for insurance reasons. One more and I probably won't be able to get coverage.
So, that's my tale. Metal can, and has been replaced, and what is important is that no one got hurt. But I sure feel embarrassed for making a stupid decision. Hopefully sharing this will be of some help to someone else. Feel free to ask any questions. My new plane has eased the sting of it all and I don't mind sharing for the most part.
