Anybody else get in the Airplane mess last night??

smelt240

smelt240

Active member
So I was trying to deliver some WRX wheels down to a guy at Pape last night.  Traffic backed up for a few miles, finally get thru, and theres a PLANE landed in the middle of 295 Southbound.  Hmmm, not what i was expecting....  kind of different to see I guess.

 
A+ effort from this pilot. Way to use your surroundings in an emergency and get on the ground safely.

Many highways worlwide are designed with +-1mi straights every so many miles, in an effort to create a suitable airstrip.

 
Yeah, I was pretty shocked when we didnt see one accident.  That guy was either very lucky or skilled.... Id guess both in this case.. to land in all that traffic and not land on anybody, or cause a huge chain reaction crash was pretty good.   I can imagine if we were the car he landed in front of.  We did pass a couple of newer WRXs in traffic in the driving lane, hopefully nobody got in trouble for being a couple hours late to work or anything.

 
Honestly, the type of plane makes a big difference. A cessna 152 has a stall speed of about 40-50mph depending on load, with full flaps and no power. Landing speed is recommended at approx 70-75mph. It's likely, if he landed with the flow of traffic, that he was able to glide in at about the same speed as the traffic and put it down in a gap of cars.

This is exactly why you practice controlling power off speed and descent rate, as well as power off approaches/landings.

 
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I didn't get caught up in it, but I did see the report on the news.  They said the pilot did everything he was taught to, and did it very well.  It's amazing that nobody was hurt.  Kudos to the pilot and remaining calm and collected in what could have been a terrible tragedy.

 
i heard the pilot got chewed out for the incident. poor guy, made a good landing. 

i also heard the plane flew slowly over the 295 southbound lane at extremely slow speeds for quite a while, he gave the cars in the motorway plenty of time to move out of the way and telegraph what he was planning. good flying!

 
^ Yeah, they tell you specifically in training that roads aren't for landing.  They frown on it quite a bit.

However, I'd rather land on nice tarmac than in a hemlock.  Screw 'em.

 
The gent who was my instructor for a while up here at bgr. Made it sound like it was a huge no no. He's no longer employed by the place, and I don't know why. I'll finish the ol license someday. Too busy at the moment with other stuff.

Where do you/have you taught?

 
I am in Rockport currently flying for Jetblue based in BOS as an A320 FO.  I was the instructor at Telford aviation in Waterville for a year (now defunct).  Then flew freight in a Cessna caravan, then went to Corporate flying a few different Bizjets for ten years.  Been at JB since 2008

I wont go bashing your instructor but If you want to get in contact with me in the future I'll elaborate on my point:)

I'm not on here very much anymore since the draconian policy of paying to post to the classifieds was instituted

 
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