Sunset Volcano cone, Arizona Meteorite Crater

Sep 3, 2012

Flying from Winslow, Arizona

Camped at the airfield, and during the night a wild lightning storm came over.
One strike was right on top of the light tower, flash-bang!
which caused the electric gate to open and close by itself.....

Storms cleared away, and brilliant morning.

Headed for the Sunset Crater Volcano, north of Flagstaff.

Here's another typical Indian homestead.

These Indians like to be well spaced away from their neighbours.
They joke that it's because they, "...Don't much like Indians..."
Actually it's because they often keep sheep and horses, and need the pasture.

Diablo Canyon cutting thro the plain.

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This is the Sunset Crater Volcano.
The name comes from the colour of the cinders, 
and would be even more dramatic with sunset sunlight.
This is one of the youngest cinder cones in the USA.

I think this one is the best of the lot.
How did all that grass seed get way up there??

It looks like the cinders are quarried for road building material.


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The Arizona Meteorite Crater.
This is the best preserved meteorite crater in the world, 
due to low rainfall and thus little erosion.

Impact energy supposedly equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT.
An aircraft is so good to get a view like this!


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Dramatic thunderstorms headed this way 
mean that it's time to get back to the airfield 
and get the aircraft back in the trailer.


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Engine problems!!!

Soon after leaving the Sunset cone, the engine sagged right to idle then surged back to power - boy that does get your attention!!  It then continued sagging and surging as I looked for some place to land if it quit altogether.....  It was all small trees down there, with no clearings large enough to land.....  So I headed for an Indian homestead that I could see in the distance.  But I was losing altitude and it was going to be a very close call at best, and if the engine quit altogether I'd have no options for selecting a crash site and no power to assist the landing....  There was still no clearing for a landing, so I started looking for the best crash site.  I know from Aussies who chase sheep with Drifters over semi-open treed country such as this, that the best plan for survival is to aim at getting the wheels right close to the ground in a spot where one wing will hook on a tree.  Then the aircraft will rapidly slew around 180 degrees and maybe end up sliding backwards, but the energy will have been absorbed with no violent impact.  This has been proven several times by one fella  who I know of, who was pretty careless in maintenance and fuel management, but really good at quick reaction, so like a cat he always survived.....  The word is don't aim between two trees and try to hook both wings, because the deceleration will be too violent.....  While my mind was going full speed trying to plan this crash, I suddenly came to a road that had been hidden by the trees at this low angle.  It was just wide enough, so dived down on it and thankfully touched down.  One wing brushed through some branches but didn't hang up.  Then there was a rest area right where I could pull off out of the way of on-coming traffic.  Once again, I felt more lucky than I deserved......  

Looked in the float bowl - full and clean....

Emptied the fuel filter - some crud in there, but didn't seem to be enough to be the problem.....

Couldn't find anything else suspicious......

Tied the tail to a tree and ran the engine full power for a long time - sounded perfect....

So, I took off and flew on toward the Meteorite Crater, and it never missed a beat.

It never missed a beat all the rest of the trip, but that memory sure stuck in my mind every time I had to fly over difficult terrain......  

I did have the ballistic chute, but I'm very wary of using them unless it's absolutely necessary.  Once you pull that handle you've lost all control of everything.  Even if the chute deploys properly without getting fouled in the pusher prop, the landing will still be fairly violent, on top of whatever happens  to be down there....  Makes good sense in the event of structural or control failure, or really hostile terrain, but if there's any chance of flying the aircraft down I'll take that option.....