Update from Dave Saylor on Matronics site
I spoke to Jerry Jackson on the phone today. *He's a friend of my airplane partner and was gracious enough to describe his recent forced landing in a lot of detail for me, and said I could make a post about it to the Matronics list. *AirCrafters wasn't involved in his build in any way, except that Jerry got a ride from my partner a few years ago and decided to build based partially on that experience. *From my notes:
Jerry had been flying his plane for one week. *It was his fourth flight with six hours on the Hobbs. *He had flown for two hours the day before. *His habit had been to decowl after every flight to look for trouble. *He landed at two airports in his test area and practiced some steep turns. *He departed Aqua Caliente (L54) and climbed to 8500 feet. *Note that the terrain in the area (33 *00.143, *-116 *42.912) includes very little flat land, peaks above 6000 feet, and deep canyons. *He was headed back to his test base, Ramona airport (RNM), when he noticed oil pressure dropping. *The plane is equipped with a 3-screen Garmin G3X panel, which includes a complete engine monitor.
He said at first he thought the reading was erroneous, but it kept dropping evenly. *20 miles from RNM he called the tower and declared an emergency. *There was no smell of oil and no visible oil leak. *As the pressure went to 0 his RPM rose, since the governor had no oil to work with, and at that point he knew he had a true emergency.
17 miles from Ramona, the engine seized and stopped.
He slowed to a good glide speed and being already on frequency, he requested vectors to anything flat. *He was given a heading to Flying T Ranch but realized immediately he couldn't glide that far. *Just ahead he could see a deep North-South canyon (San Diego River). *He estimated he could glide into it but not over it. *Opting not to glide to the bottom of a rocky canyon, he turned south to parallel the canyon rim. *He saw a road (Eagle Peak Rd.) and followed it south. *On seeing a few parked cars, he picked the most gentle hillside and glided into some low brush, uphill, with flaps down at 50-55 knots.
The nose gear tore off almost immediately. *He later found it sticking out of the ground ?like a plumber's water pipe?. *He noted that his 406 MHz ELT had activated. *He was concerned that the authorities would call his home looking for him, only to reach his wife who didn't know what was going on. *He got out and attempted a call to Ramona on a handheld. *This part is cool?an RV-4 in the area had heard his distress call and headed his way. *The -4 found him and was able to relay some info from Jerry to Ramona, and pass on the exact location to ATC. *It took a hiker with a smartphone to get a text message to his wife, however, right after the Air Force called her. *The fire department arrived 45 minutes after landing and gave him a ride back to town.
In Jerry's estimation, the airframe is most likely destroyed. *He said there were buckles in the sheet metal in many places, including the tunnel and the panel (wow!). *But he said over and over that he thought Van's designed a great plane that protected him when he needed it, bent where it should have and stayed together where it had to.
This was his third engine from Aerosport Power. *He's a repeat offender having built a Murphy Moose and a -6A. *He put 1600 hours on his last RV. *All the oil was concentrated on the right side but he hasn't been able to determine yet what happened. *If I hear I'll try to post any news.
Personally, I think he did a great job flying, navigating, and communicating, in that order. *He took appropriate action, slowed to glide speed, didn't stall too high, he found a place to land, and he managed to be found by ground, air, and space. *And he walked away. *Good job!
Dave Saylor
831-750-0284 CL