I was digging through some old pics and came across this picture of the remnants of the Cessna 180 on floats that I was in the back seat of when it crashed into the forested mountains of Vancouver Island.
To answer some common questions that I get about that day:
We all survived (three of us)!
The crash was primarily due to pilot error. We were not flying "conservatively" enough. We were flying too close to a mountain range and the co-pilot was at the helm. He followed a ridge line too closely and ended up flying into a box canyon, where the slope of the mountain was greater than the maximum climb rate of the plane.
Because of how steep the mountains were around us, it took about 6 hours for search and rescue helicopters to find and extract us. We were rescued by SARTech Comox, to whom I will be forever grateful. There was nowhere that they could land their Cormorant helicopter, so a team of four rappelled down to us, and we were eventually winched up into the helicopter.
My life didn't flash before my eyes because it all happened so quickly. In fact, I was in the back seat and I didn't have my seat belt on... I didn't even have time to get it secured before we started clipping trees.
The thing I remember most about the aftermath was the smell. The fuel tanks had ruptured so there was a smell of aviation fuel fumes, recently broken branches, and the smell of "torn" metal (a smell that I get reminded of when I go into machine shops that do lathe and milling machine work.
Happened over a decade ago, and I am still comfortable flying in small aircraft.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions to ask that I didn't answer.
Almighty_One on November 4th, 2021 at 22:34 UTC »
What did that poor tree ever do to you?
30ftandayear on November 4th, 2021 at 22:39 UTC »
I was digging through some old pics and came across this picture of the remnants of the Cessna 180 on floats that I was in the back seat of when it crashed into the forested mountains of Vancouver Island.
To answer some common questions that I get about that day:
We all survived (three of us)!
The crash was primarily due to pilot error. We were not flying "conservatively" enough. We were flying too close to a mountain range and the co-pilot was at the helm. He followed a ridge line too closely and ended up flying into a box canyon, where the slope of the mountain was greater than the maximum climb rate of the plane.
Because of how steep the mountains were around us, it took about 6 hours for search and rescue helicopters to find and extract us. We were rescued by SARTech Comox, to whom I will be forever grateful. There was nowhere that they could land their Cormorant helicopter, so a team of four rappelled down to us, and we were eventually winched up into the helicopter.
My life didn't flash before my eyes because it all happened so quickly. In fact, I was in the back seat and I didn't have my seat belt on... I didn't even have time to get it secured before we started clipping trees.
The thing I remember most about the aftermath was the smell. The fuel tanks had ruptured so there was a smell of aviation fuel fumes, recently broken branches, and the smell of "torn" metal (a smell that I get reminded of when I go into machine shops that do lathe and milling machine work.
Happened over a decade ago, and I am still comfortable flying in small aircraft.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions to ask that I didn't answer.
garygnu on November 4th, 2021 at 23:16 UTC »
Any landing you can walk away from is a good one. - Launchpad McQuack