[simpits-tech] This sucks

[Bubba]

As I pulled into the airport today I saw 3 helicopters hovering off the end 
of 14 and knew there wasn't good news waiting for me. No pilot, even one in 
a news helicopter, would loiter off the departure end of the active runway 
without a damn good reason. I slid to a stop in the first parking spot I 
could find, attempted to dive out of the car without popping the harness 
(ouch), collected myself, and ran into the FBO just in time to catch 
something on the news about a light twin going down just south of CXO. We 
didn't know anything at the time, but one of the school's instructors was 
out in the Duchess doing touch and goes and had pretty much vanished, so we 
had a good idea what was going on. There's still no official word, but it 
sounds like he lost an engine and went down, hitting a house. Everything was 
burned/melted to the point that they couldn't easily identify the plane. I 
decided it was a good idea to stay on the ground until the helicopters had 
left, so I started preflight around 8 for some short field TOL and maybe 
forward slips. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough and the news crew caught 
me and I had to step over a cameraman more than once during preflight. He 
almost caught a large, stainless tiedown fitting in the face.

The part that had me a little uneasy was the fact that he obviously lost an 
engine, everyone was running around talking about the NTSB wanting samples 
from the fuel truck, and my tanks got topped off right after the Duchess's 
yesterday from the same truck. And after all this I'm still flying to 
Galveston tomorrow so I can do it alone next week.
--
Steve
mysticz28 at swbell.net
He who seeks will find, and he who knocks will be let in.