My students look at me with great incredulity. \u201cNo way!\u201d one says. \u201cSix inches?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYep. At least we think it was six inches. It might have been closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could you measure a miss that close?\u201d another asks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimple. We moved the airplanes to the closest point we could estimate and then put the prop of the Ercoupe vertical. There was about five and a half inches between the top of the prop arc and the bottom of my wing,\u201d I explained. Then I went on to tell the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say.<\/p>\n
We were headed to the Tampa Bay area for a fly-in of our little aviation group. The little grass field where we landed had a road paralleling the runway and the local hosts parked us in a line tails to the road. There were about 30 airplanes parked wingtip-to-wingtip.<\/p>\n
Most of my friends had acquired hotel rooms or set up tents for the evening. Since I grew up in Tampa and my best friend still lived there, I decided to fly over to an airport on the North side at about 10 p.m.\u2014Paul was still working until after 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
I went out to my Cessna 170, pre-flighted, climbed in, and fired up the engine. Since the tail faced the road and there was no traffic and there was a pasture on the other side of the road, I did a quick engine run-up in the spot. Then I taxied out to the end of Runway 9. After my departure call, I applied full power and began rolling.<\/p>\n
The night was dark. Real dark.<\/p>\n
At about the time I my tail lifted off the ground, I saw the Ercoupe. It was right in the middle of the runway without any lights. The silver airframe appeared as a ghostly figure in the\u00a0beam of my landing light.<\/p>\n
The prop arc of the Ercoupe passed about six to 12 inches outboard of where the strut joined the wing on my Cessna. I instinctively threw in full right aileron to try lifting the left wing. I went by the Ercoupe while looking at it to confirm the lights were out. They were.<\/p>\n
I lost my direction on the dark runway. I knew fences bordered each side of the runway. I had to fly and fly now!<\/p>\n
I reached down and grabbed the flap handle. I snatched on 20 degrees of flaps; I was very happy for manual flaps–there\u2019s nothing better than being able to get half flaps instantaneously<\/em>.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know where the needle was pointing on the airspeed indicator; I was flying the airplane by feel. After I knew I was airborne and clear of the fence, I felt compelled to look back over my shoulder at the Ercoupe once more. I had to make sure I was right about the Ercoupe\u2019s lights being off.<\/p>\n They were. As I looked at the dark apparition sitting in the middle of the runway, the nav lights suddenly popped on.<\/p>\n I circled overhead to pull my heart out of my throat and the seat cushion out of my…\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Down below, a couple of my friends were watching. They had witnessed the whole event.<\/p>\n They would tell me later both the Ercoupe pilot and I yelled \u201cClear!\u201d at the same moment. Neither of us heard the other and then we stared our respective airplanes simultaneously, so again, we did not hear one another.<\/p>\n After I settled down, I landed to have a little \u201cdebriefing\u201d with the Ercoupe pilot. I asked him why he was moving an airplane around in the dark without lights. I also asked if he was aware of the regulatory requirement of turning on nav lights when moving an airplane in the dark.<\/p>\n Months later, he told me \u201cthe rest of the story.\u201d As he was moving across the runway, his nosewheel fell into a \u201cgopher hole,\u201d causing him to stop. Then he had to work the nosewheel of the airplane out of the hole very carefully.<\/p>\n \u201cHad I not fallen into the hole,\u201d he said, \u201cWe more than likely would have hit spinner-to-spinner.\u201d<\/p>\n We were very lucky that night.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My students look at me with great incredulity. \u201cNo way!\u201d one says. \u201cSix inches?\u201d \u201cYep. At least we think it was six inches. It might have been closer.\u201d \u201cHow could you measure a miss that close?\u201d another asks. \u201cSimple. We … Continue reading