Byron looked at the Sectional Chart.. there was a private grass strip nestled in the mountains just outside of Helen in North Georgia... 1800' with an up slope towards rising terrain... He wanted to go in there.
Oh he thought about it all right and studied the information and weather... and his airplanes performance charts........
Day came he climbed into the PA 28 R... Many call it a Piper Arrow... it was a later model with the tapered wing...
The 100 statute mile flight out of Atlanta was uneventful... he flew over the velvet mountains below and set up a nice approach and slipped into the strip with no problem.
Following Days Departure:
This is where the fun began..... well lets see... one direction the runway had a gentle up slope towards the rising terrain... He asked the advice of the old man that was there who owned the strip what he though about conditions that morning... The elderly gentleman suggested a take off towards the rising terrain and with the up slope........... due to the winds.......
Now as you may well know the Arrow has a safety feature on the landing gear.. above VX of climb the landing gear comes down automatic.. for us genius types.... Byron knowing this engaged the Manual Override on the automatic gear extension feature so he could suck the gear up and perform a maximum performance short field take off.... and climb out at Best Angle of climb........
Byron knew he was light.... around half fuel and he was the only physical person on board....
Byron taxied the Arrow or PA 28 R if you prefer to the end of the dewy grass strip... did his run up ..
Stood on the brakes and applied full power...............
There we go.... Brake release and off to the races............
Very nice... Best angle of climb.. gear up... shallow turn to the right crosswind before smacking into the mountain.. my those tree tops are a bit close.......
NOW! at this very fine moment the engine automatically retards several hundred r.p.m.'s and starts a loud knocking... Precious.....
He hears his instructor who is not in the airplane say... 'Get your head out of the Cockpit keep the bank shallow get the nose down maintain the airspeed and whatever you do don't stall the wing'
Byron remembers saying ' Jesus please don't let me go into the trees' Engine rattling he gets the plane around and level on a low right hand down wind... the terrain was falling beneath him... ok, ok, ok, he says to him self... he gently pulls back some on the power... or throttle.. the engine quits knocking at the reduced setting... now the dilemma........... Stay on course for Atlanta with a faulty engine or land back at the little Strip? nestled in the mountains just there.... out the window to his right.... and not too far below...
He extends his down wind.....
Well lets experiment.. he rolls in to full power again and that engine started knocking loud again,
Another instructors voice chimes in his head... "no runway closer then the one below you... why chance it?"
Byron commits... to his short field landing ... he was still flying from outside... he reached in the plane and grabbed the flap lever... full flaps... hold it off .... hold it off... hold it off... full stall... tie down ring hits the turf..
THE GEAR! THE GEAR! Dag Nabbit.......... The GEAR!
Well Byron accomplished some world record for a short field landing... PLOP........... Seat backs all flew forward.. the prop sliced the turf 3 times like the top of a loaf of bread... and the Flying Machine came to a full rest falling silent.
It all got very still... Mags off, Master off, fuel off... out the door and on the wing... run away.....
Please tell me that did not just happen.
Well if it is any consolation prize... Byron heard... "there are those that have and those that will land gear up"
Epilogue: It turned out the plane had a bent push rod that turned out to be the noise maker at the party.... the plane suffered little damage.. just curled the inboard trailing edges of the flaps and curled the propeller tips...
The Gear! The Gear! Thankfully Byron was able to miss the Tree Tops.. and got it around.. with a shallow bank...
Byron just did not reach over and lower the gear.... Byron did bad, but he did not spin in.
