Airplane Pics

[SAnd]

Short version- I lost power and hit a telephone line on landing.

Long version- I lost power down to about 1100 rpm. I was over trees. I found at that rpm I could hold about 40 foot above the trees in ground effect. I knew I was only about 3 or 4 miles from open farm land so I kept going. About the time I cleared the trees to a nice open freshly harvested field the engine quit. I looked for power/telephone poles but didn't see any. I hit a telephone cable about 25 feet off the ground. It broke at the left main landing gear leg and wrapped around the right leg. It stalled me so I hit kinda nose down and slid until the cable got tight and flipped me up side down. I hung from the seat belt letting my head clear from the whack it took hitting the instrument panel. That is until I heard the whoosh of the gasoline as it ignited. At that time I released the seat belt, kicked the door open, and did the jump, scramble, and crawl thing. I was told latter that I kicked the door completely off and it was about 50 feet from the airplane.

I went back a couple weeks later. The telephone line branched off at 90 degrees to a main line I had been traveling parallel to. I counted out 100 paces from the main line to the first pole on the line I hit. The line was a 1 inch thick cable. I think if it had been just a couple wire I likely would have landed OK.

This is a picture from about 2 weeks earlier. It happened in the fall of 1975.