Unmanned plane takes off, wrecks

Associated Press, Posted December 27 2001, 11:57 AM EST

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PETALUMA, Calif. -- Authorities Thursday morning found the wreckage of a small plane that broke from its moorings at a rural Sonoma County airstrip and took off without a pilot.

A California Highway Patrol plane spotted the mangled plane near the dam at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. There was no sign of fire and no one was hurt.

No one was sure how the Aeronca Champion, a small two-seat plane from the 1950s, took off by itself Wednesday afternoon from a small farm airstrip.

Highway patrol officials said it flew about 20 miles before crashing.

The owner, whose name was not released, ``was working on the engine, I guess, and it got away from him,'' Sonoma County sheriff's spokesman Phil Coughlin said.

The plane had less than 15 gallons of fuel, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

``Luckily, in Sonoma County there are a lot of wide-open areas,'' said sheriff's Lt. Rich Sweeting.

It's not the first time that model plane has gotten airborne with nobody at the controls. Experts said it has an old-fashioned starting system that requires the pilot to open the throttle and then climb out and crank the propeller to get the engine running.

In 1997, a Champion took off without a pilot in rural Ohio and flew for 90 minutes before crashing into a bean field.

In 1990, another Champion taxied in circles on the ground at a small Florida airport with the pilot hanging on to the door. He jumped free and the plane crashed into a soda machine.

In 1987, the same model got away from its pilot and flew by itself for 65 miles over rural New York before slamming into a tree.

Copyright © 2001, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

Answers

I want the vacuum cleaner model.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

The plane mentioned is one of the old fabric covered two seaters, with the seats located one behind the other, not side by side. The original models of Piper Cub were almost identical to the Aeronca. Those planes did not have any electric starter for the engine. The pilot would set the throttle to just above idle, turn on the ignition switch to allow the spark plugs to fire up, and then hand prop it from in front of the engine to get it started. If the pilot was alone, and the brakes were not fully set, and the throttle was a little too high, then when he swung the prop the engine could fire up at too high a power setting and the plane could start to move.

Since the pilot was outside the plane to prop the engine if the plane got moving too quickly he couldn't get into the cockpit to stop it. It didn't happen very often, but occasionally a solo pilot would be caught by surprise this way. Usually the power setting wasn't high enough to allow the plane to get airborne, but sometimes it was.

Sounds like that is what happened here. The pilot made some basic mistake in setting the throttle before he hand propped it and the plane then accelerated away with enough speed to lift off. Those planes came from the "good old days" when the only thing electrical in the entire aircraft was the magneto spark plug system. Many old movies will show the pilot hand propping the engines of such planes.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002