Posted on 06/23/2009 6:12:08 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
An 83-year-old pilot was forced to land on a busy expressway Sunday morning after experiencing engine trouble.
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The homemade single-engine Hummelbird plane ended up on the side of the road after its wing clipped a light pole upon landing on a South Florida expressway.
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Ralph Squeglia, who has been flying since 1944, said he was careful to avoid moving cars as he landed the plane on a stretch of the Sawgrass Expressway, just north of Oakland Park Blvd.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcmiami.com ...
He called is a perfect landing, but after landing he hit a tree.
Pretty spunky old guy.
Looked up the specs on the aircraft, only 18 ft. wingspan. Pretty small, my son flies a 3 meter R/C sailplane that is about 1/2 that wing span.
http://www.flyhummel.com/ultra_cruiser_plus.htm
Any landing you can walk away from is a perfect landing.
I am inclined to agree, and he probably is a good pilot.
Sounds like he had engine failure (plane uses 1/2 a VW engine for power plant).
Then the tail skid caused the collision with the power pole.
I’ll bet the little plane is fun to fly. Pretty nice looking low-wing homebuilt.
hummel designs have been around for a long time - great little kit planes.
Did you notice the military touch on the plane behind the cockpit?
His name and what looks like a kill symbol. Wonder if he was a fighter pilot?
Guess he should have used a whole VW engine.
From what I have read there are crankshaft balance issues with cutting a VW engine in half, but it makes the weight issue more reasonable. I am sure there are other problems. It is probably a cheap and reasonably good choice for a power plant. I looked at some of the photo’s of the modified engines and they do not look bad.
It is a common practice, but you can have engine failures on a lot of products. It is just a little more serious when you cannot get out and kick the tires.
I am not sure what other options for power plants are out there for a plane this small. I have always wanted to fly a plane, but my wife will not even get on a commercial airline. And of course there is the money thing, do not have that either. My son and I do fly R/C sailplanes, though. Safer, but less fun.
Wow, from the source — “Miami News” — I thought I had gone back in time. The Miami News stopped publication 20 years ago, leaving the Herald as Miami’s only daily. The source here is actually the local NBC affiliate, which is called “NBC 6” (or sometimes even by its call letters, WTVJ), not “Miami News.”
Sorry, should have noted in the web address.
Shows my ignorance of the area.
My wife and I took about six kids and cousins to Disneyland some years ago.
She suggested we split the kids in half between us.
“Who gets the heads?” was not met with laughter, after 6 hours in the Orlando heat.
They use the full engine in such diverse applications from auto-gyros and para-sailers to the Vari-EZ and other fixed wing ultralights.
it’s a picture of tweety bird. perhaps he flew for the salvation army.
The symbol is a Tweety bird.
I wonder if he flew a T-37 Tweety Bird at some time?
Thanks for the clarification, I was not familiar with their aircraft models.
It is a nice looking plane though.
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