New Book out

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:51 am

Speaking of Alaska adventures: A few weeks ago, I saw on the news where a pilot from the Anchorage area flew his Maule out & landed on the beach for a little beach-combing. Come time to leave, he couldn't get it started, & I guess the tide came in & wiped it out. Then when he never showed up at home, nobody knew where he'd flown off to, so the search activity was all somewhere else. He was out there for a couple days, luckily he got into a handy nearby cabin for shelter. A Coast Guard C-130 happened to fly over & he raised them on a marine band radio, & they came & got him outa there the next day.
Whatta bummer! Anybody know this guy?

Eric

Harold Holiman · Post by **Harold Holiman** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 1:26 am

AR Dave asked about the Alaska accident rate. I don't know the exact Alaska precentage, but, The 180/185 Club has not had a very good safety record this year. So far in 2004, there have been 14 180/185 accidents. I believe a majority of these were in Alaska. Of the 14, 7 were total losses and 3 involved fatalities. Of these 14, only one was blamed on mechanical failure. Please fly safely.

Harold H
N92CP

pdb · Post by **pdb** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 4:00 am

zero.one.victor wrote:Speaking of Alaska adventures:
Whatta bummer! Anybody know this guy?

Eric

From the 11/28/04 Anchorage Daily News:

A pilot missing since Monday was found alive Saturday afternoon in a remote bay south of Seldovia, in good shape and upbeat spirits, the Alaska National Guard said.

Michael Holman of Wasilla was spotted by the Coast Guard crew of a C-130 transport plane about 4 p.m. during a training exercise near Homer, said Maj. Chris Kobi, with the National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center in Anchorage.

The crew picked up a distress call the 46-year-old pilot made through his hand-held marine band radio.

The Coast Guard was able to see a bonfire built by Holman outside an intensive search area at Koyuktolik Bay, popularly known as Dogfish Bay, about 15 miles from Seldovia. Holman told the crew he had plenty of food, water and other provisions and was staying inside a cabin.

"I've been saying all along we had to be optimistic," Kobi said. "So many of these cases have very, very strange outcomes, you just can't write them off."

Winds and approaching darkness prevented rescuers from picking Holman up. The National Guard planned to send a Pave Hawk helicopter crew at first light today to bring Holman to Kulis Air National Guard Base in Anchorage about 11:30 a.m., officials said.

"He indicated he was fine, not injured," Kobi said. "We felt it was prudent not to risk sending someone there now."

National Guard officials said Holman's wife was notified about the good news shortly after they got the call from the Coast Guard.

Since Holman has not been personally interviewed, National Guard officials said details remained sketchy about the chain of events since he flew out from Palmer on Monday afternoon, headed for Seldovia.

They weren't even sure about the fate of his blue and white Maule ML-7 aircraft, though additional reports said that for some reason the plane washed out or was destroyed, Kobi said.

Tom Lenfestey Jr. of Palmer, a friend of Holman's, said Saturday night that he learned from another friend visiting Saturday at the pilot's home that Holman apparently had some type of aircraft trouble and put down on a beach at the bay.

While he was trying to fix the plane, "the tide came in and washed it out to sea," Lenfestey said.

Holman flies as a commercial pilot for United Airlines, his friend said.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and "sure got a lot of outdoors survival training," Lenfestey said.

"Mike is a very, very heads-up, a very skilled woodsman, and we knew that if he was not too busted up, he'd hike to someplace safe if not walk all the way to Palmer," he said.

Since Holman went missing, weather hampered search efforts.

But the Civil Air Patrol and others went out anyway, battling winds, snow, rain and fog that decreased visibility.

Maj. Mike Haller said a steady stream of searchers have focused on a 4,000-square-mile area over the Kenai Peninsula.

Searchers always held out hope they would find Holman alive, noting he is a highly experienced pilot. Adding to their confidence was the fact that Holman had survival gear on board.

"Once again, fact is better than fiction," Haller said. "Another Alaskan walks away from a serious incident and survives to see his family and hug them again another day."

Daily News reporter Peter Porco contributed to this report.

AR Dave · Post by **AR Dave** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:31 am

Read my first Aviators story book!
The Story of Don Sheldon, Wager with the Wind.
WOW!

My copy is an original Hard Back that a coemployee got for me while looking for the other books we talked about, Bush Pilots, Helmericks, etc..
But I saw that the paper back reprint is $14.95 at Stevens International. Might have to buy a couple of copies as Petit Jean door prizes.

Floating backwards down Devil's Canyon and his first landing at 14,300 ft on Mt McKinley (Denali) has disturbed me. Wings collasping while in flight didn't do much to comfort me either.

AR Dave · Post by **AR Dave** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 10:27 am

Coworker had 4 more hardbacks waiting, when I got in today.
The Flight of the Artic Tern - by Constance and Bud Helmerick
Artic Bush Pilot - by Bud
Hunting in North America - by Constance
Alaska's Bush Pilots -
He said that the book seller had another one by the Helmericks that he wanted $75 for. The title had something referring to a river in it.
Hard to imagine the Helmericks writing these books 10 miles from where I'm sitting right now!

rudymantel · Post by **rudymantel** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:34 pm

"Couldn't get the plane started" ... I wonder if he could have hand-propped it ? Seems to be a lost art-
Rudy

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:25 pm

I assume that with the tide coming in he tried hand-propping, & probably every other thing he could think of. I've seen some airplanes (injected ones especially) that you can't hardly hot-start, even with an electric starter--hand-propping,no way!
Rudy, is there much beach-landing action in Florida? You have to have the most coastline per square mile of any state. In washington, we have considerable number of landable beaches, but I believe the law prohibits landing on any of them except at Copalis, an official state airport.

Eric

rudymantel · Post by **rudymantel** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:46 pm

Eric, I don't know anyone who lands on beaches. Probably against the law here too. I have a friend who used to land at lakes and ponds, even in metropolitan areas, with impunity. Unfortunately a storm destroyed his Twin Bee.
I had a Pitts S1S with a fuel injected 200 hp IO-360 and no electrical system. The only way to start it was by hand. It started fine. (It had a wobble pump for fuel pressure, so if that Maule had a really dead battery that would be a problem).
I'd hate to land at an airport anywhere today and expect line service to hand prop the plane.

Rudy

beeliner · Post by **beeliner** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 12:02 pm

Good points. One thing I don't carry in the plane I will now add. I used to fly a number of planes with no starter. I always carried a 50' line (rope for you land lubbers) in the champs & chiefs I flew. Like someone said, it's often hard to find someone who knows how to hand prop. And I never liked propping from behind the prop. So I'd tie the tail to a tie down (or a fence post or whatever) while I hand propped. After starting and warming up I would untie the line from the anchor, never letting go of it, untie from the tail wheel from in front of the stabilizer, and go to the cockpit. I have hand propped the C-145/0-300 several times. It's pretty easy since my engine starts on the 2nd or 3rd flip hot or cold. In an emergency landing area you can usually find something to tie to. Now my 170 equipment list will include the 50' line!

rudymantel · Post by **rudymantel** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 1:51 pm

I have a set of aluminum chocks, held together by bungees, which I always carry in the plane. (Disabled parking brake). That would also work when hand-propping. The O-300 does start readily when hand propped.
Rudy

Post by **GAHorn** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:19 pm

beeliner wrote:Good points. One thing I don't carry in the plane I will now add. I used to fly a number of planes with no starter. I always carried a 50' line (rope for you land lubbers) in the champs & chiefs I flew. ... Now my 170 equipment list will include the 50' line!

beeliner.... that stuff is called "shoreline".

(An item we Scout counselors always sent the Tenderfoots up the long, steep hill to the Quartermaster to obtain twenty-feet of. He'd typically send them back to the waterfront to ask if we also needed the "keys to the oarlocks.")