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Propeller breaks 13,000 feet in the air
Tim Cassell crash landed his plane in a remote area of the Sierra Nevada and then he spent 18 hours in the cold before being rescued. The pilot took off in his signal-engine Piper Cherokee plane. However, 20 minutes away from his destination and 13,000 feet high above the San Joaquin Valley, the plane's propeller broke in half. (www.ktvu.com) 更多...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I've flown with Tim on this route before. It is very rugged terrain, and it's very fortunate he was able to put the plane down. Each time he flew this route, he would look for possible planes to set down in the event of an emergency. Tim was also very careful about maintenance and pre-flight checks.
Here is a link to the family's resort's Facebook page, which is where he was headed:
https://www.facebook.com/PanamintSprings
One of the sons wrote up some more detail.
Here is a link to the family's resort's Facebook page, which is where he was headed:
https://www.facebook.com/PanamintSprings
One of the sons wrote up some more detail.
you know the old say ... any landing you walk away from is a good one .
The last line says the FAA & NTSB investigated and the family is hauling it out. Will be interesting to see what comes out later.
Help me out here everybody. After reading this article two times, I still must be missing something. I assume when prop broke and aircraft stated violently shaking the pilot cut power...assess the situation..shut down engine. Why descend 2000 fpm and add stress to damaged airframe. At 13,000 ft..prox 10/1 glide ratio would give one ample time and distance to land with less stress on aircraft also gives time to give shout-out or beacon code as dmanuel posted on this squawk. Don't take me wrong the Pilot did a great job..got plane down..hobbled away from aircraft...lived to see another day.
An important detail to know is that where the plane went down, about 15 miles SW of Lone Pine CA, is within some of the most extreme terrain in the state of California. He had 12,000' terrain to clear, while the flattest meadow in the general vicinity is at an elevation of about 11,000'. He wasn't flying very high AGL; obviously if he was descending at 2000 FPM, he would not sustain that rate of descent for very long. He was about five minutes shy of the summit ridge, after which he would have needed to descend almost 10,000 feet down to Lone Pine at 3700 MSL on the Owens Valley floor.
Great info! Thanks.
No reason to question anything, he's alive and not in ICU.