alan_k Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 The available runways are still very squishy from all the rain we have had so I went over to Wanafly, they at least have more area to find a firm take off spot. I had to park a little way from the runway and lug the kit a good way up the mildly sloping runway. To say it was soft is, well…accurate, so things got a little muddy. What’s a little mud though when you want to get a flight in? I’ve been making some adjustments to the harness so I also wanted to check for comfort. I took off on the second attempt after fluffing the first due to wind direction. Climb out was good but I couldn’t slip into the seat; no problem I’ll just gain a safe height and then pull myself in I thought. When I did I caught the kill switch, I’ve done this before when making adjustments and it usually only results in a very minor drop in rpm. This was when everything went quiet Shall I try a restart? Sounded rather terminal the way the engine had just died. Plenty of fields below me so I decided to make an outlanding to be on the safe side. Executed a perfect landing then inspected the kit. My throttle is a home brew unit with a very light action kill switch. When I looked I found some MUD had jammed the kill switch down, no wonder the engine stopped A couple of flicks with my thumb and the switch was back to normal. The field I was in wasn’t very flat so a short flight turned into a long walk. It was a 2 mile walk around the twisting rural roads to get back to Wanafly to do a retrieve. Looking on the bright side at least I got some practice in for an outlanding, plus some exercise from the walk Cheers, Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatPux Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Good tale. Well with any luck the mud will be receding this week with some sunshine and breeze this weekend and more good weather next week. I had mud in everything after last weekends little mishap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsquared Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Good call....I had to read it twice, first thought you did a 2 mile hike with your kit...thinking you must be a gorilla. Glad all is well....back in the air ASAP. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outkast Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 been there, at a PMC fly in in oxford, took off, climbing out over farm buildings, leant forward to pull out the flap bit of the seat board, shoulder hits the kill switch, engine stops cant land straight ahead as its covered in farm buildings and the main farm house, cant go left, trees, look right only one field I can make full of young cattle but I have no choice, I was no more than 100ft when this episode started so had to make some quick decisions, turn right straight into the field, between two long metal feeding troughs. skid on the carpet of cow shit and end up on my arse, in the said same cow shit. nothing broke and the young cows did not seem interested, Mike Sylvester came running over and helped me get my kit back to the take off field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.