Well done keeping your family safe. I hope you and your family are coping ok with the traumatic experience. You already know this, but there are a lot of folks you can reach out to privately who have experience in dealing with the emotions after an event like this.

I'm just so relieved that you and your family are safe. Thinking about you brother.

Brett

Glad to see you and your family made it through this safely Matt. Looks like you did a great job getting down.

I can only say what so many have already said: Glad you bent the metal and not the people. Huge accomplishment.

Very sorry for the bent metal part.

/a

As my father told me many years ago:

When the engine quits, the insurance company now owns the airplane.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. The good Lord was right there with us when it happened and some very good BCP friends showed up just after. I cannot say enough good things about the people that are apart of this community.

Physically we came out of this unscathed. Emotionally my wife and I are a little banged up. Not sure where this road in life will lead next, but we'll take it one day at a time and thank God for all of them here on out.

When the time is right, I'll share the details, I believe it may save someone's life someday. Not only that, I'd like to learn as much as I can from this.

As for the plane, it did its job, and I'm very thankful for that.

Finally, please go out and practice engine out procedures and install the best seat belt harnesses you can buy.

MM

Matt,

I'm glad to hear you flew it to the stop, and that nobody was hurt.

After I parked a great C 185 on a mountainside after the crank broke, I was commiserating with a pilot friend and told him I really felt bad about using up the plane. His response was "I love my airplane dearly, but at the point where it's either the plane or me, I'll use up that plane and walk away without a regret."

I frequently think about that accident, and those BAS harnesses that saved my life. I'm glad your restraints did their job as well. As you say, this kind of deal will make you a believer.

Congratulations on the whole family coming through this without bodily injury.

You obviously did an outstanding job of flying the plane.

MTV

Matt: This is my 3rd attempt to post on this thread. Like all here, I'm glad this story ends with a family safe at home. I hope the skills you developed for exploring the back country contributed to having your whole family walk away unscathed physically. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to share when the time is right. As someone else mentioned, breathe in, breathe out and take one step at a time until you're ready to tell the story. One of the reasons I got into this flying niche was the impression I had of this community being rock solid. I hope I never need emergency support from this crowd, but I can't think of any better group to rely on a pinch. In the meantime I'll continue to enjoy this company of pilots and learn as much from them as I can. As a successful survivor, you are in the role of teacher now.

mountainmatt wrote:
Finally, please go out and practice engine out procedures and install the best seat belt harnesses you can buy.

MM

Thank you. I wrote that down three weeks ago as something I needed to do, and haven't done it yet.

Now it's on my "I'm not doing anything else before I do that" list.

Matt,
Like everyone else on here, glad you and your family are safe and well... Airplanes can be replaced or rebuilt... People can't... Take care..

Brian

Matt, I'm so very thankful you and Katie and Luke are OK. God has plans for you all--don't know what they are, but He does.

I echo what you said: practice engine out procedures. When my engine threw a rod 11+ years ago just after I bought the airplane, the lessons I learned from all those engine outs that my first instructor insisted on foisting on me 31 years earlier came back, along with lessons from the recent engine out that my new (since then my regular) instructor pulled on me during an insurance checkout. You fly like you train.

Best wishes for full recovery--and don't hesitate to ask for help, because sometimes experiences like these can be overwhelming.

Cary

Matt, I echo the words and support expressed in all the other posts. Very sorry to hear about this, but I'm so glad everyone came through unhurt. In the end, that is simply all that matters.

Take the time you need to process this, both for yourself and with your wife. Don't let anybody else tell you how long that should be--it is a very personal thing. As Brett said, don't be shy about reaching out, whether to other members of this community or elsewhere, to work through this. A lot of us here have been fellow travelers on similar roads, and several more than once. In the meantime, I hope you can take some comfort in all that went right--you kept it together when the chips were down, your training and experience paid off, you made the decisions that kept your family safe, you experienced the presence of the Big Man Upstairs in that cockpit, your plane did its job and brought you through in one piece, and you were fortunate enough to be surrounded by good friends and support almost immediately. It's a bummer that some replaceable stuff was bent, but your cup runneth over, my friend.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if I can help you out in any way.

Sounds like you did a great job of flying it all way to the end! I'm glad you are all OK, that is all that matters. By the way - great job using that nosewheel to dissipate energy! Hah!