FORCED LANDING
Posted by Eric van der Merwe on Friday, June 17, 2011
Under: True stories
According to my logbook this happened on the 15th July 1967 - I had just turned thirteen!
We were on a trip in South Africa from Port Elizabeth to Durban and then Johannesburg back to PE.
My logbook entries are as follows -
7th July PE - East London 1'20"
EL - Durban 2"25"
We attended an airshow at Virginia airport and Shelia Scott arrived in her Comanche having just set
a non-stop record from the UK to Cape Town. I think she was the first female in a single and the
fastest time for the trip, maybe someone can enlighten us?
11th July DN - Virginia 20".
VG - Ladismith 1'40"
The trip had been uneventful other than having to do a series of 360 climbing turns on the leg out of Ladismith in order to clear the mountains! This was quite normal for an Ercoupe with an 85 hp engine. It had a variable pitch prop which did help, especially in the cruise- we could easily do about 85 kts! or was it MPH?
Places like Rand Airport(5500 Amsl ) were also interesting on a hot day with a climb speed of 65!
11 JULY 1967
Ladismith - FAGM(RAND) 2'20"
13th
Rand - Grand Central 40"
15th
GC - Bloemfontein 2'50"
Bloem to Forced Landing Road 3'00"
The trip from Bloemfontein was also uneventful until after Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape. Having just cleared some very mountainous terrain the trusty 85hp decided to run very roughly, we were at FL 85.
The engine had lost about 50% of its power and we had to land!
We had a good ten minutes to look for a suitable force lob field and my father decided on a nice long road.
A mayday was transmitted to PE and they told us to look for Henrys Flats airfield that was close-by, but we
couldn't find!
I have subsequently landed there on numerous occasions, more recently with a gaggle of Yaks in near darkness! but that's a story for another day.
ATC called a formation of two AT6 Harvards from 6 squadron which were in the area to try and be of assistance to us but to no avail.
I was not that perturbed about our predicament until we were on final approach at about 2000 feet when my dad mentioned that we open the canopy! The Ercoupe has a two part split sliding window.He suggested this in case we needed to make a quick escape after landing. This proved unnecessary!
Unfortunately at about 1500 agl I noticed two fences running parallel to the road and we were in a low wing aircraft. We had no option as at this stage as we were too low to find another field. At this stage I recall feeling the anxiety begin.
Thankfully we continued and landed with plenty of wingtip clearance.
The fence proved a bonus as a strand from it was used to repair the engine- a loose baffle on the exhaust system had caused the problem. The wire was used to tie it up and I hitched a ride with a bemused passing car,while my father took off and found Henrys Flats only about 10 nm away!
Meanwhile the harvards were conversing with each other on the PE VHF frequency saying things like"look for smoke!"
We never got to see them.
Our ordeal got a small mention in the local PE newspaper and I guess it was a bit of a non-event, but at age 13 it was huge for me.
Fortunately it did not put me off flying and it has been my ONLY forced landing. I am now 57 and have around 20 000 hrs so I guess things have been pretty good in the aviation world.
Eric vd Merwe
Bahrain
June 2011
We were on a trip in South Africa from Port Elizabeth to Durban and then Johannesburg back to PE.
My logbook entries are as follows -
7th July PE - East London 1'20"
EL - Durban 2"25"
We attended an airshow at Virginia airport and Shelia Scott arrived in her Comanche having just set
a non-stop record from the UK to Cape Town. I think she was the first female in a single and the
fastest time for the trip, maybe someone can enlighten us?
11th July DN - Virginia 20".
VG - Ladismith 1'40"
The trip had been uneventful other than having to do a series of 360 climbing turns on the leg out of Ladismith in order to clear the mountains! This was quite normal for an Ercoupe with an 85 hp engine. It had a variable pitch prop which did help, especially in the cruise- we could easily do about 85 kts! or was it MPH?
Places like Rand Airport(5500 Amsl ) were also interesting on a hot day with a climb speed of 65!
11 JULY 1967
Ladismith - FAGM(RAND) 2'20"
13th
Rand - Grand Central 40"
15th
GC - Bloemfontein 2'50"
Bloem to Forced Landing Road 3'00"
The trip from Bloemfontein was also uneventful until after Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape. Having just cleared some very mountainous terrain the trusty 85hp decided to run very roughly, we were at FL 85.
The engine had lost about 50% of its power and we had to land!
We had a good ten minutes to look for a suitable force lob field and my father decided on a nice long road.
A mayday was transmitted to PE and they told us to look for Henrys Flats airfield that was close-by, but we
couldn't find!
I have subsequently landed there on numerous occasions, more recently with a gaggle of Yaks in near darkness! but that's a story for another day.
ATC called a formation of two AT6 Harvards from 6 squadron which were in the area to try and be of assistance to us but to no avail.
I was not that perturbed about our predicament until we were on final approach at about 2000 feet when my dad mentioned that we open the canopy! The Ercoupe has a two part split sliding window.He suggested this in case we needed to make a quick escape after landing. This proved unnecessary!
Unfortunately at about 1500 agl I noticed two fences running parallel to the road and we were in a low wing aircraft. We had no option as at this stage as we were too low to find another field. At this stage I recall feeling the anxiety begin.
Thankfully we continued and landed with plenty of wingtip clearance.
The fence proved a bonus as a strand from it was used to repair the engine- a loose baffle on the exhaust system had caused the problem. The wire was used to tie it up and I hitched a ride with a bemused passing car,while my father took off and found Henrys Flats only about 10 nm away!
Meanwhile the harvards were conversing with each other on the PE VHF frequency saying things like"look for smoke!"
We never got to see them.
Our ordeal got a small mention in the local PE newspaper and I guess it was a bit of a non-event, but at age 13 it was huge for me.
Fortunately it did not put me off flying and it has been my ONLY forced landing. I am now 57 and have around 20 000 hrs so I guess things have been pretty good in the aviation world.
Eric vd Merwe
Bahrain
June 2011
In : True stories