Help Finding Copy of Story from the old 170 Site

[N1478D]

I need some help. A good friend who is a QB, aircraft restorer, member of all types of aviation groups, has asked me to send him my story of when I first obtained my license and then went out, got on top of the clouds, and eventually had to go into the clouds and lost control of the airplane. I verbally told it to him many years ago, and now I think it's his short winged piper group, or maybe the QB's want to publish it to help beginning pilots from making the same mistakes. I posted the story on the old 170 site and remember some members said they printed it to share with others. If anyone has access to that info and can get it I sure would appreciate it.

Thanks In Advance,
Joe

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Joe, I just searched the old site. It's still there and available to old members.

Is this what your talking about?

Written by Joe Harris at the old site:

Bought the 170 in October, earned my private
pilot's license in December, and this story is one month
later in January. Waiting at Lakeway, Austin, TX, for
ground fog to clear, pilot reports and WX telling me 70
miles north no clouds. Finally punched through a hole
and got on top of the clouds for my trip to NW
Arkansas. 100 miles later I am at 11,000 and climbing to
stay above the clouds. It is freezing cold and
eventually I am weaving and climbing through towering clouds
that are rapidly out climbing me, although I am still
able to climb at 12,500. Unknown to me during this
trip, some upholstery work I had been doing was loose
and up against the heater inlet and was smoldering.
My passenger had passed out and was very limp and
almost in the floor. I was having trouble staying awake
myself, but I had never been that for up, and assumed it
was an oxygen issue. Since I had gone alot further
than 70 miles I was expecting blue sky any moment, and
made the decision to level off and enter the clouds
rather than try to keep climbing, behind me was towering
clouds. No instrument training showed up less than two
minutes later! I was watching my DG so I would stay on
course and find that cloudless sky as soon as possible
when I looked over at my Artifical Horizon. It was
upside down, and I fixated on it not believing that it
would pick this moment to go out. After a while I
started looking at other instruments and my AI was right
at redline with the needles trying to spin off of
all of the other instruments. Nearly yanked the
throttle cable out of the panel. It took a long time to
get partial control of the airplane. My first several
attempts had no affect on anything. I forgot that there
might be a ceiling and figured that we would spiral all
the way down. I was able at times to get the airspeed
down, but I would lose control again and again.
Eventually I saw the earth spinning through the bottom of
the clouds and gained full control and we lived. I
have not been on top of clouds much since then. Joe

[Bill Hart]

HOLY COW

[N1478D]

THANK YOU so much Bruce! I will send it on to Jack, after spell checking.

[johneeb]

Good story lesson Joe. I was to intent on reading your story to notice any miss spelled words.

[bradbrady]

Good story leason Joe. I was to intent on reading your story to notice any miss spelled words.

Me too!
brad

[GAHorn]

Good story leason Joe. I was to intent on reading your story to notice any miss spelled words.

Me too!
brad

Leason?

[johneeb]

Good story leason Joe. I was to intent on reading your story to notice any miss spelled words.

Me too!
brad

Leason?

Ok ok so it wasn't the spell binding story but my own lack of spelling prowess that kept me from noticing any misspelling.

[GAHorn]

That? (or may be?)

[hilltop170]

Joe-
What did the plane look like when you landed (other than the seat cushions)?

Was there any damage?

Has your passenger ever gotten back in a plane with you again? Or any plane for that matter?

That has to be the sickest feeling I could imagine while flying, looking at the instruments all tumbled and thinking, What the h_ _ _????? and not knowing what is going on or what to do about it.

[N1478D]

Joe-
What did the plane look like when you landed (other than the seat cushions)?

Was there any damage?

Has your passenger ever gotten back in a plane with you again? Or any plane for that matter?

That has to be the sickest feeling I could imagine while flying, looking at the instruments all tumbled and thinking, What the h_ _ _????? and not knowing what is going on or what to do about it.

Hi Richard,

I had an AI go completely through it, explaining what the plane had been thru. He said there was no damage, and not even any sign of stress. If I had been in a sleek, fast airplane like Mr. Kennedy was in a few months later, I wouldn't have had a chance - the airspeed would have built up too fast for me to save the airframe. They really knew how to build airplanes back in the early 50's. The design and integrity allows a pilot to survive some mistakes. I was able to get the power off in time, the struts, etc kept me slow enough to stay within the limits. I certainly had thoughts of the wings flying off when I saw it was at redline, that's why I pulled so fast and hard on the throttle cable. Can't believe the cable stayed attached as hard as I yanked on it.

After I had tried twice, every possible combination of control inputs without being able to influence the airplane, I looked at my passenger and had to make the decision to either wake her, so she would know what was about to happen and make any prayers, etc., or to let her sleep and not have her go thru the horror that was happening. I decided to let her sleep and she didn't wake up till we landed at Mena, AR to check for damage when we broke out of the clouds about 1500 ft AGL. The overwhelming feeling I had at the time I was trying to determine which was best for her, to be awake or asleep, was that I was a murderer and thru bad judgement and mistakes was in the process of murdering a completely innocent person. It was a more terrible feeling than I can find words to describe. Yes, she flew with me after that.

Once I decided to let her sleep I went back to trying to figure out what to do. I knew that a more experienced pilot would somehow be able to influence the airplane and it dawned on me the only other thing they could use that I hadn't used was the power. So, I started going back thru all of the different combinations of control inputs, but this time I would add power at the same time. That's when I finally started influencing the airplane and flew like that in the cloud from the Texas/Oklahoma border in and out of control to the Mena area loosing more altitude each time I lost control again.

[hilltop170]

Thanks for sharing those thoughts with us Joe. I have often wondered what it would feel like to loose control in the clouds. Even though I'm current and regularly fly IFR, I can sympathize with what you must have gone thru. We're all glad you made it. That also says a whole lot about how tough the 170 is and how well it was designed.

[GAHorn]

Maybe that's why your plane is green. It's airsick. (Sorry. Couldn't resist, Joe!)

I think of that story from time to time ever since you first told it, Joe. I admire your courage and integrity to tell it to your fellow pilots in what I perceive is an effort to impress them with the need to get good instrument training, even if they don't intend to fly instruments.

While the C-170 is an excellent design which includes a certain amount of over-stress allowances, the C-170 is not specifically designed to "save" a pilot from such events, nor is it significantly stronger or less likely to be overstressed by incorrect techniques than other certificated designs. I believe that you were very lucky in that time-frame, not to have introduced control inputs that would lead to airframe failure. (There are others who have taken this design to the failure point in similar situations and not been so lucky.)
Your experience that day is related from the viewpoint of a non-instrument rated, disoriented pilot. (Not a criticism, only an observation that your memory of the event will likely always be from that viewpoint, even if you have subsequently gone on to greater capabilities as an aviator.) This makes the re-telling of the event not especially revealing as regards the strength of the design, as it does in relating the very lucky outcome. The sparse memory of that event does not allow an accurate assessment of the various attitudes of the aircraft, or the subsequent actions taken, to determine if they were appropriate, or effective even. The design of the airplane doubtless affected favorably the outcome, but it is not likely an event which can be repeatable.
No one should feel so encouraged by the fortunate outcome of that experience that they don't fully recognize the need to avoid instrument conditions until properly "qualified and current" with an instrument rating. IMHO

Glad you're still with us, Joe. You're a good one.

[N1478D]

Thanks for the kind words Richard and George.

George, you are absolutely correct. LUCK was everything that day, other than me not going in to a panic and not continuing to try.

The design of the plane helped in that it is a slow and dirty airplane. That gave me a few more seconds.

I had less than 10 hours as a pilot when that happened, not counting the training hours. George, you are right about the attitudes, I never had a clue.

My thoughts on sharing the story is that it might prevent a new pilot from making the same mistakes. That license to learn, and hope you make it thru your first bad judgements without killing yourself has not worked for some. I was very lucky as I have stated. It was such a horrifying event, I thought I was dead for the next three days. Kept expecting a person in a RED suit to come and get me! ( I couldn't resist either George! ) Now I know I could have out run the guy in red!