Sitting in the cockpit at the top of the hill, with a rock wedged under the rear wheel, I made my preparations. I cinched the seat belt tight around my waist. It was a Cub Scout belt cut in half and nailed to each side of where the driver (pilot) sat. I gave one last tug on the chinstrap of my Los Angeles Rams football helmet, thinking that it would protect me in the event of a crash from the great height I knew I would attain.
I took a fi rm grip on the rope steering, which I held like the reins of a horse. There was no way to guide the craft if it did get airborne, something I hadn’t thought of. I fi gured I would just lean in the direction I wanted to fl y. The object was to get airborne. Steering in fl ight was a secondary consideration that I would deal with later.
Once ready, I yanked out the rock wedged under the rear wheel. The craft began to roll down the steep hill and gained speed quickly. In no time I was rocketing down the hill on the narrow tarmac road. The wings bowed and fl apped wildly as they tried to take the weight of the craft. The steering began to buff et as if the front wheels were trying to lift off the ground. I bent over in my seat and pulled the steering reins tighter to hold on for liftoff . Halfway down the hill one wing reached its structural limit and snapped off . This caused the plane to ground loop, hurling me—and machine—down a steep embankment and through a barbed wire fence. It was only by the grace of God (and a hell of a lot of luck) that the back axle caught on a fence post to stop the remains of the contraption from fl ying off into the never-never over a 200-foot cliff .
It turned out to be a good safety measure to wear the football helmet. After the dust and debris settled, I took it off and noticed that there was a long, deep groove carved along the top by a rusty barb from the fence I had just crashed through.
Orville and Wilbur certainly had nothing to fear that day.
Randy Mains is an author, public speaker, and a CRM/AMRM consultant who works in the helicopter industry after a long career of aviation adventure. He currently serves as chief CRM/AMRM instructor for Oregon Areo.
He may be contacted at:
randym@oregonareo.com
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