Posted on 08/19/2005 2:36:22 PM PDT by sionnsar
A Dozy pilot flew his plane for two hours before he noticed that five-and-a-half feet of one wing had been torn off by a tree on take-off. The Irish pilot told investigators he thought he had been "struck by a little bird" on takeoff in his five-seater Cessna 210.
But despite two of the three passengers being top flight engineers on their way to fix a Boeing 767, no one noticed that half the left wing, containing one fuel tank, was missing. The unnamed pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at Jersey International Airport two hours later after he finally spotted the fuel gauge plummeting towards empty.
The drama unfolded as the Cessna took off from Brittas House Airstrip, 18 miles east of Shannon in Ireland last Friday.
As the small aircraft - bound for Lisbon in Portugal - left the runway it collided with treetops which ripped off a 5ft 7ins section of the left wing. The fuel tank was later found on the ground - back in Ireland.
Jersey International Airport was alerted and air traffic controllers guided the damaged plane to safety.
A spokesman for the airport said: "We were amazed it had managed to fly as long as it had, it was in a real state when it came in.
"The pilot was the most shocked of us all as he had not realised the extent of the damage while he was flying."
He didn't notice it was handling a little funny?
You would have to look out and up. Most people look out and down. And I'm normally white-knuckled with my eyes squeezed shut.
Does not look like quite half. Looks like about an 1/8th...
Looks like a Cessna............good plane! I flew one before I lost my license to high blood pressure.
There was a little man on the wing tearing into the engine...
Plus, my original comment was kind of tongue in cheek.
When I was in civilian flight training they taught us how to fly the aircraft "by the tail". It's scary but it works like a charm. A good pilot can take his aircraft in with a lot more damage than this.
That test pilot was Tex Johnson.
It seems to me that everytime I read about some horrendous or really stupid car accident, the local paper ends the story with the laconic "alcohol may have been involved". I thought it very appropriate here
It's a CG image of a Boeing (formerly McD) "Blended Wing Body" transport. Do a search on BWB, you'll find a lot.
I believe this particular image was done for a magazine... pop Sci or Sci Am or some such.
Loose cowling cover a top-flight mechanic didn't close
The trim on a C210 has a lot of range. It requires a lot of right rudder to overcome the P factor when you start the takeoff roll.
It has a takeoff power of 310 HP and that causes a lot of left turn tendancy. It is not like a 152, a 172 or other lower powered aircraft.
Transitioning from a 172 to a 210 was almost like learning to fly again.
Yes he can. That is well documented above.
The point I think is that neither he nor his esteemed colleag's noticed
I Thought I hit a bird?
Sorry but thats pretty lame.
BTW I was always admonished for rudder flying.
"you like flying sideways doncha jack?" LOL
I used to fly with rudder only a lot of the time. If the aelorons were trimmed, it required very light rudder to keep the wings level and it left both hands free to unfold maps, work the circular slide rule and other things that took two hands.
It also made it so that you instinctively used rudder along with the wheel when flying with your left hand.
amazing what a few beers will do......
thankxlot...
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