Piper Cherokee N713G, 135 miles north of Manassas, over Sproule Forest, PA
Maegyn looked over at Animal, concerned with the darkening development of the altocumulus clouds that were rising into the sky to the starboard of their course. The WX NOTAMS prior to when they left hadn't made any indications that there would be developing thunderstorms in their area, but then again the weather picture could have changed while they were in the air. Thunderstorms were quick to develop and if she and Animal didn't keep watch over it, they could get into a nasty situation – she'd experienced flying around them while she was flying in her Tomcat, but this was another thing flying in a small aircraft.
"The ride's getting bumpy…" Animal stated casually, his hands on the yoke compensating for the turbulent motion in the air. "We're getting some clear air turbulence…" the Cherokee suddenly rose about fifty feet in the air. "Shit…" he muttered as he compensated with throttle forward, hell at the moderate speed that the Cherokee was capable of, there wasn't much wiggle room as far as airspeed was concerned. "We're getting up-drafted. Maegyn, I'm going to need your hands on the other yoke."
"OK…just let me know when you want me to assist." Maegyn's answers were short and clipped giving clue to her stress level, and she noted that there was towering cumulus to her starboard. Animal looked over to see the clouds she had pointed out and those clouds looked as though they were well on their way to developing into CBs, an aviator's nightmare. "This doesn't look good at all…"
"November Seven One Three Golf, Williamsport VOR, We're getting bounced around here. WX NOTAM didn't indicate developing cumulus. Update?" Animal's voice was calm and considering how much Maegyn flew with him on previous missions in combat, she knew when he went quiet, shit was going to start happening. And with the towering cumulus on their starboard, it was going to be a serious situation.
"November Seven One Three Golf, This is Williamsport VOR, be advised, WX NOTAMS indicate developing thunderstorm sixty miles east of your location." Was the reply from Williamsport VOR.
"Roger that, Williamsport VOR. If it gets too bumpy up here, we're radioing in for a divert."
"Roger that, November Seven One Three Golf, keep us advised." Williamsport VOR notified him.
Manassas Regional Airport, Manassas, VA
(AN: A long time ago, I took aviation ground school in preparation to attempt to get my pilot's license. This was in the years just after Top Gun came out and I wanted to fly for a living (which eventually didn't happen due to my vertigo at altitude – especially in open cockpit aircraft). The ground school instructors were extremely cognizant of factors that could affect airborne aircraft and CB (cumulonimbus) development was something that the instructors stressed that aviators should not play around with. The vertical wind-shear in these systems could rip apart a light aircraft and they have been responsible for aircraft fatalities in accidents. It is a wise aviator that states: DO NOT FLY IN CBs!
"Manassas Tower, this is Stearman November 52513, touch and go…" Harm radioed as Lia marvelled at the power coming from the Lycoming R680-17 radial. Evidently this was what he enjoyed doing, Lia thought as she watched the horizon fall away as the Stearman scrambled for altitude after the touch and go. "Lia, I think we should put her down, I'm seeing some serious cloud development to our north east. It pretty much nixes our plans for the day."
"That's OK, better to be safe…" Lia replied, a bit disappointed, but she knew that caution was the order of the day with flying. She wasn't as familiar with Harm's flying skills but she knew that if he urged caution then that caution was necessary.
"Take a look over to the right…" Harm said as he pulled on the stick making the Stearman rise in the air passing six thousand feet… "Lia, those are altocumulus with development…that means that we're going to have a nasty thunderstorm coming in a few hours. I'm going to set her down for the day after this circuit. I don't think we'll be doing that trip today."
"That's OK, Harm." Lia replied as she looked over with unease at those dark clouds.
Harm's mind on the other hand was on his friends, they had taken off a lot earlier in a light aircraft bound for parts unknown; at least the destination wasn't something that Animal had disclosed to Harm. But Harm knew, looking at the clouds that Animal was heading into weather. Both Maegyn and Animal were two experienced naval aviators, but the limitations were not in their skill but with the aircraft that they were flying. The Piper Cherokee was a good enough airplane, but did not have enough engine power to power through any downdrafts and that aircraft could potentially have their wings ripped off by the wind-shear or put into the ground by downdrafts that could exceed two hundred miles per hour. "You know…Lia, I hope that Animal and Irish get to where they're going. At 120 knots, they're not going to be able to outrun that front coming in."
Completing the circuit, Harm put the Stearman on the runway and taxied her in. Upon putting the Stearman away, both Lia and Harm walked over to meteorology and asked for the latest WX NOTAM (weather notice to airmen). Getting handed the sheet, he looked at it:
112719980445Z SIGMET ACSL DVLP CB CVNTN WS CLG 65000 FLR 3500 OCFNT TRW PRESFR HAZ ICGIP IMC
His eyes widened as his eyes fixed on DVLP CB CVNTN and WS. Both those notations (developing cumulonimbus w/convection and windshear) stood out to him as an aviator. Animal and Maegyn were flying into a dangerous situation. He looked over at the meteorology attendant and asked. "Did the two who were flying in November Seven One Three Golf have this information or is this updated info?"
"It's updated in the past fifteen minutes."
"Shit!" Harm muttered slamming a fist into his open palm. "That means they don't know anything about the developing storm front, do they?" he looked over at Lia. "They're flying right into it at 120 knots." Harm knew the maximum speed of a Piper Cherokee.
"So what do we do?" Lia asked.
"Hope and pray…" That was all they could do.
Keeter's Room, Courtyard by Marriott Dunn Loring Fairfax 1200hrs
Jack groaned stretching his arms out in a yawn as he crossed the room from his comfy sofa as he answered the phone. "Keeter…" he answered.
"Yeah, it's Harm. Our buddy just went up in a Piper Cherokee with Irish…they're heading into an occluded front with thunderstorm development."
"Oh, shit…" Keeter muttered "Who told him to do that?"
"Nobody, he just opted to take Irish with him and they went up to do some flying. I think they were headed northward from the direction I could see his airplane going in." There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and Keeter scratched his head. "There's nothing we can do until after the storm is over. "I've got their flight plan, but it covers a lot of ground. Judging from what I can see…" Harm's voice sounded tense. "…they were doing a flight to Rochester then from there, they were heading to Maine and a trip down along the coast. And with the speed of the system moving in on them, the system will hit them in the side before they can take evasive. And there's nothing that we can do until we either know they arrived safely or a Mayday call comes in."
"Keep me on standby, Harm. As you said, there's nothing we can do until either one of those eventualities takes place." Keeter replied, looking in the mirror over the dresser and seeing the tense appearance on his own face. "I've flown into a CB and damn, Harm, you don't want to get into one of those. I lost six thousand feet of altitude in one second and the next I'm back up at forty-five, those wind-shears can plant a Piper into the ground in less than a second and you wouldn't know what hit ya."
"I know, Keeter." Harm sounded apprehensive on the other end of the line. "I'll keep you posted if I learn anything else."
Piper Cherokee N713G, 195 miles north of Manassas, 1200hrs.
The headwinds were killing Piper Cherokee November Seven One Three Golf. Having been blown off course, the tanks were three-quarters empty and Animal wasn't finding the range that he needed with the consumption of gas. Not to mention the wind-shear gusts that were coming in front of the rapidly increasing storm-front that appeared out of no-where was blowing him off-course over Sproule State Forest.
"I don't know but it looks like we may have to find an alternate landing strip to land this thing until the stormfront passes through." He informed Maegyn who was looking out with apprehension seeing a big wall of cumulonimbus developing not 30 miles to their starboard. One particularly hard gust of wind had blown Animal's aircraft to the side so hard, it almost seemed as though the control yoke was about to be ripped from their hands as the aircraft banked hard left. It was a fight to bring the Cherokee back on course.
"Animal, we need to get down…" Maegyn advised him.
"Yeah, I'm thinkin' the same. Maegyn…" Animal looked over at the AWR seeing a whole pile of green and red in a tao shape on the screen. "Oh, shit, that's a hook echo!" Animal said as they descended over Sproule Forest. "Maegyn…" he said, voice deceptively calm, "I need at least 1620 feet to land this thing." He looked over at the length.
"Can we make Elmira Corning on the gas we have?"
"No…we'll be on vapor."
"Look…we're coming over Renovo…There's a railyard there. It's long enough of a grass strip to hopefully manage to get the aircraft down. Watch the tree at the end of the strip. Hopefully we'll have bled off enough speed."
"If I have to take the tree…Our only other option is to ditch in the river and swim for it. " Animal replied heartfelt, "I'll take it on the port side. I'm going to drop flaps and slow to 66 knots airspeed, hopefully that'll take a lot of speed out of the aircraft and we'll be able to stop before we hit the tree. Mayday Mayday Mayday, November Seven One Three Golf, Emergency landing, train yard, Renovo, Pennsylvania!"
"Roger, November Seven One Three Golf, will notify Renovo emergency dispatch…" Elmira Coming Airport replied.
Renovo, Pennsylvania
"Derek!" Elsie Sommer looked out the window of 820 Erie Avenue as she heard what appeared to be a light airplane flying around. "Look out the front door and see if that's an airplane. 'Cause we don't have an airport nearby."
Derek Sommer walked out of the house onto Erie Avenue and saw a light aircraft making a few passes, "Elsie, I think that airplane is looking for a landing spot. It looks like he may be low on gas."
"Well, we don't have no aviation gas here…if he lands here he ain't gettin' out again, at least not through flyin'."
"That's for sure, Elsie; the train-yard is too small to take off from. I hear sirens…I think Citizen's Hose Company's been notified. I see the Ford truck comin' down Erie right now…"
Piper Cherokee N713G, Renovo, PA, on final
Animal was watching his airspeed as he descended towards the building that was right smack at the foot of what would be his landing spot. Setting up from the east, he flew a nice shallow approach coming in towards the building; he'd skim right over the trailer before he made his landing. Flying over Huron Avenue Bridge, he set up for landing. "Flaps down six degrees. Seventy-two knots, reducing airspeed to sixty-six…" he intoned as he concentrated on the landing. Over the trailer, and at sixteen feet off the ground, he cut throttles, effectively causing the aircraft to hit hard on the grass. The only thing that went through his mind was hope there's no steel rails in the grass as the Piper went careening down the length of grass there was in the railway yard. Animal slammed on the brakes, jamming both feet on the pedals as the Piper Cherokee dug its right wheel into the soft grass at the very end, ground-looped and spun around to face the way it had come. Cutting the engine off, he sighed a very deep sigh, slumping into his seat. Both Maegyn and Animal took deep breaths and sighs of relief which were only broken by firefighters on their wing opening the door.
"Are you all right?" the lead firefighter asked. "Any injuries?"
"I don't think so…" Maegyn said. "Just a few years off our life though from fright."
"I'm going to have to tow this aircraft out of here…" sighed Animal as he looked over at Maegyn. "Thank God for that railway yard, or we would have had to ditch in the trees. Those clouds up there are thunderstorm loaded…we got blown off course by the wind and practically used up all our gas trying to get back on a proper heading…" he notified the fireman. "It looks like it's going to be a nasty one." The first droplets of rain started coming down…the crowd that had gathered looked over at the aircraft from the safety of Erie Avenue. Animal slowly unbuckled himself, from the seat. His knee had jammed hard against the bottom of the instrument panel and he winced as he stood up. He had on a Navy flight jacket with his wings, rank and name as did Maegyn. He reached up to grab Maegyn's hand as she jumped from the wing to the ground. They were luckily only bruised and the fire department and the ambulance paramedics checked them over to make sure that they were alright.
Animal thanked the paramedics and set about calling to set up a aircraft mechanic to come up to take apart the wings and set them on a flatbed to take the aircraft back to Manassas, VA. He looked pensively at his Piper Cherokee for a long moment. Then he looked over at Maegyn and said. "I'm sorry that this flight ended so abruptly. Can we still go out for dinner?"
Maegyn burst out laughing. "Tosh…sure…and after a landing like that you definitely owe me dinner."
Yesterday's Hotel and Restaurant, 141-143 3rd St., Renovo, PA
"So, you two are the two who landed that airplane on the railway yard?" the concierge grinned at Animal and Maegyn. Maegyn and Animal shrugged self-consciously and he nodded. "Most excitement we had around these parts anymore."
After getting their rooms, Animal looked over at Maegyn, "Well, we should call the motel and let them know that we may be a bit late coming back to get our things. Then we should call Harm. There's no car-rental place around here so we won't be able to rent a car to get out of here."
"And it's not such a good thing to get behind the wheel of a car after something like this…" Maegyn rendered an opinion to which Animal nodded – no, it wasn't a good idea to get in a car after such a shakeup like this. "I think we'd better call the hotel that our things are at and tell them we may be a little delayed."
"And then after that, I'd better call Harm. It's going to be almost a six hour drive from where he's at right now…to get up here."
After Maegyn used the hotel phone to call the hotel and make arrangements for their things to be placed into hotel storage, she handed the phone to him and whispered. "Oh, you are so going to brighten Harm's day." She chuckled softly as she headed for the washroom.
Manassas Regional Airport, Manassas, VA 1245hrs
Harm practically leapt on the cell-phone the second it started ringing. "Rabb!" he barked.
"Hey…" Harm breathed a sigh of relief that brought Lia's attention to him. "It's me…" Animal's voice was a relief to hear on the phone.
"I hear you, Animal." Harm replied as he looked over at Lia. "So…where are you? The WX NOTAMS indicated severe weather."
"I'm stuck in Renovo…got buffeted around too much in the air, didn't have enough gas to make it to an alternate strip and put down in a train-yard in Renovo."
"Shit." Harm replied. "So, you're calling because you need a ride?"
"Would be nice…"
Harm chuckled… "You know I'm not going to let you live this down…" he grinned at Lia as he spoke on the phone to Animal.
"Yeah…thanks…" Animal's voice sounded sarcastic.
"Where's your stuff at? I'll pick it up for you; and then you can owe me until we can square it up."
"Harm…"
"It's no problem." Harm insisted.
Yesterday's Hotel and Restaurant, 141-143 3rd St., Renovo, PA
"OK…Harm, thanks…" Animal nodded as Maegyn emerged from the washroom looking at him quizzically. He cupped the telephone. "Harm's going to go get our things from the hotel…and bring them up with him." Nodding. "OK…we'll expect you around 1330-1400 tomorrow. And Harm…thanks." Animal sighed in relief as he looked over at Maegyn as he hung up the phone. " Yeah, he's coming up to pick us up tomorrow between 1330 and 1400…"
"That's great. I guess we'll eat here and relax for the evening." Maegyn said. Animal nodded as he knew his credit card would be getting a workout. His shoulders and neck hurt from the violent ground-loop that they had experienced after landing and he just wanted to eat something and go to sleep. But he realized that he needed to contact his CO to let him know that he might be a little late into work on Monday due to the incident.
Dialing the personal phone number to his CO, he told the vice-admiral that he had been flying his personal aircraft and that there had been an incident that needed to be reported to the FAA, that he would more than likely have to miss the first part of the morning for FAA medical matters. Vice Admiral Donald Paszek notified him that it was alright. "Thank you, sir." Animal had said.
Then he notified the CNO about the incident, apologizing to the CNO about having to screw up their time schedule for investigations due to an unforeseen aviation incident. The CNO, in response, mentioned that the Army had been asking about airtime for hauling equipment practice. "Let 'em figure out how to get your airplane back to Manassas. Major General Hornick has been bugging me about some airtime for his Army National Guard helicopter crews and they could use some practice hauling around other things other than their steel turtles…" Admiral Kaczanowski had said. "I'll send someone from Fort Muir down to talk to you about it around 1000hrs tomorrow morning. They can touch down their Huey UH-1 and assess the situation. I'm sure we can get your Piper out of there inside of a week." Animal looked over at Maegyn with a surprised look. When the CNO finally let him go, he sat down on the couch in the suite with a stunned look on his face. He knew that he had to retrieve his aircraft, but he had thought he would have to get the aircraft completely disassembled to wings and fuselage, whereas the CNO had just solved his entire problem for him.
Yesterday's Hotel and Restaurant, 141-143 3rd St., Renovo, PA 1000hrs.
Animal ate bacon, hashbrowns and sausages for breakfast as he looked over the Renovo Record at the latest news. Evidently his landing made the front page of the local paper. Yep, he was never going to live this one down from Harm. But he had a meeting with a Pennsylvania National Guard officer this morning at the site of the landing. So he quickly got his meal finished, picked up his US Navy ball-cap with the scrambled eggs on the brim, which he usually wore with his G-1, paid for his meal and headed out the door of the hotel. He could hear a Huey in the distance and as he rounded the corner of Erie, he could see the Huey UH-1 with Army National Guard painted on the side setting down about a hundred feet away from his Piper. Groaning, he saw Harm leaning against Animal's Camaro Iroc-Z grinning widely, Lieutenant Commander Liandra Gracen beside him – they were early….extremely early judging from the yawns, LCDR Gracen was giving off.
In the usual tricolor green-brown-black BDU, a captain ran up to Animal and saluted. Animal despite being in civilians clothes, saluted back to the amusement of the reporter from the Renovo paper. "Captain Nakamura, sir? Captain Richard Davies, sir. CAB/28 sir. General Hornick says that you have a training unit that needs to be hauled out of here. I'm here to assess the situation, sir and then we'll have an Ugly Banana out here to haul your bird out of here, back to Manassas."
The Renovo Record reporter asked Harm, "If he's a captain…" she gestured towards the Army captain, "…and the other guy is a captain?" she paused for a moment, confused, "…why's he saluting the guy? I thought they were of equal ranks."
"No…they aren't." Harm grinned, chuckling at the reporter. "The army captain is equivalent to a Navy lieutenant, notice the US Navy ball-cap the captain is wearing? In the Navy, a captain is equivalent to a US Army colonel."
After Animal had finished with Captain Davies who got back into the UH-1 and headed back to AAF Muir, he walked over to Harm and LCDR Gracen, "You're early." He grinned at the two of them and then glowered at Harm, "And…how the hell did you start my car?"
Harm lifted a key, "You kept a spare in your sea-bag – shipmate, and you know I knew just where to look for it." Harm looked way too smug for his own good, Animal decided. "Well, we decided to get the drive started early…so we took your room at the hotel; and another one for Lia and then got an early start this morning, like about 0430hrs this morning, the traffic was light so we managed to get out of Virginia quickly. We'll switch cars back when you and Maegyn get back to the motel. My Stingray can only seat two. Maegyn still at the hotel?" Animal nodded.
"The hotel owner didn't call the cops when she saw you peeling out of the driveway at 4:00 this morning in MY car?" Animal said as he took the keys from Harm and they got in.
"Nope, as far as I know. I think they were asleep." Harm replied without worry. Animal rolled his eyes.
"If I get stopped by police coming back to Manassas, you're going to be doing financial assessments for Fleet potato chip requisitioning orders for the next three months."
AN:
Hi gonna nick pick little bit but no worries. Renovo was an interesting choice to land as just to the south is Lock Haven and Piper field where Animal's Cherokee was made and he most likely would had know that. It would had been Clinton County Emergency Services not Renovo and the primary fire department would had been Renovo Fire as Citizens is on the other side of the River (they would had been dispatched too.) And if they would had flown a little further north and east they would of ended up in Lycoming County and could had made the emergency landing at the old not in use anymore Black Forest "mountain" airstrip. And a Piper Cherokee flies on high octane auto gas, 100 octane is better but most people use auto fuel. Oh and back a ways you said Cessna only had taildraggers, not true most Cessna's are not tail draggers. A Cessna 150 or170 is a tail dragger while a 152 or 172 has nose gear. So yes I am from PA know the area am a volunteer firefighter and know about planes. My parents used to own a Stearman.
:Great story keepem flying. Muir is not a base it is just the name of the airfield at fort indiantown gap of the pa national guard. 28th aviation brigade
Reply: I love reviews like this: Namely because it teaches me about the area and I appreciate it since I live clear on the other side of the continent (West Coast and north of the border) and a lot of my location research came from Google so, Matt, thank you. Considering I've seen a lot of Cessna 152s and 172s around at my local civil aviation airport, I should have remembered that – I can only admit writer error on that mistake.
I would have loved to have gotten my pilot's license but well…so it goes – vertigo and me didn't get along too well, especially since I ended up trying to get my "ultralight license"…that really got my vertigo going. Thanks to both of you for your reviews. Keep 'em coming.
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