For whatever reason... Forrest elected to take off and fly from Atlanta to Northern Georgia.. there was a private grass strip up in those mountains... it was 1600' feet long and had rising terrain and a bit of an uphill grade... and of course it was down hill and towards the valley the other direction... there was an old man up there that flew a Tri Pacer... he was like 80 years old.
Forrest took the Piper Arrow.. it had the 200 h.p engine and the controllable pitch propeller and retractable gear... .... entry level complex single...
He dropped the gear and put down full flaps and made a nice landing nestled between the green mountains.
Spent the night in Helen.... the next morning Forrest Byron returned to the strip.. and consulted with the old man... as to which direction to take off.... up hill towards the mountains and rising terrain or down hill towards the valley...
Maybe the old man was joking.. he said take off up hill towards the mountains...
So Forrest taxied to the end of the grass strip.. he knew the plane was relatively light.. half fuel.. no passengers.. but he knew he had little margin for any error...
He did the run up... engaged the gear manual override stood on the brakes advanced full power and released and rotated at best angle of climb... there we go... gear up nose down a titch...
Rattle Rattle Bang! Bang! the R.P.M.'s started to roll back just over the trees while making a right turn out.. Forrest is talking to himself now like Jimmy Stewart.. in the Spirit of St. Louis ... Keep the turn shallow... stay out of the tree top's don't stall, Jesus Please........... the green tree tops whiz by... Whew! the terrain starts to fall away the engine is still running and knocking....
He retards the throttle the rattling stops... hmmm.... he wonders do I chance flying another 100 miles back to Atlanta?
No he thinks not, some instructor's words ring in his head... outside the cockpit now... " No runway better then the one below you"
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He elects to return... drops full flaps.. brings the power all the way back to idle... beautiful, beautiful, keep raising the nose pull back pull back all the way the yoke is in his lap.. perfect.. he hears the tail tie down ring hit the turf... SHIT!
THE GEAR...................... BAM! the seat backs fly forward plane slides to a halt... Fuck Me.. Forrest Exclaims... he shuts the mags off, master switch off and turns the fuel off then jumps out of the airplane, onto the wing.......
Son of a Bitch!................. Oh Well....... "any landing you walk away from is a good one."
" there are those that have landed gear up and those that will." Two fly boy adages.
Forrest Byron got those two out of the way he did.
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