Hey Guys,
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Got you on the title. You knew it had to be about Airplanes
This past weekend Wifie and I went to Corpus Christi to be with Son Trey and Family to attend the Kingsville NAS Airshow.
Earlier in the week Trey's friend Glen Watson of "Mach Point One Aviation" asked Trey if he would fly a little formation in Glen's Beechcraft A-36 so he could take a picture or two of the Performers. Since we had our SNJ-4 on Static Display at the Air Show it wouldn't be a problem.
Just for the record. All these performers are down to Earth Great Guys and Aviators. They don't take a knee :wink:
From Trey's Facebook
"Had the honor of flying the legendary Glenn Watson at the Wings Over South Texas Air Show today, thanks for the opportunity! Mach Point One Aviation Photography".
Glenn Watson "More like I had the honor of flying with the legendary Trey Hayden!"
If you look REAL hard you can see "J Bird" next to the B-25/PBJ
This is what the photos were taken from.
The Blues aren't the only ones that can fly Formation The T-45s are from NAS Kingsville and what Trey taught Formation Flying in.
Beechcraft D-18 flown by Matt Younkin, Redline RV-8s of Redline Airshows, and Rob Holland 7 time US Aerobatic Champion and 4 time World Freestyle Champion.
Double Trouble BAD TO THE BONE
Not who you wanted to see during Viet Nam, well maybe if you were at his 6 O'clock
I'm sad to say that the pictures of Rob Holland's plane are the last taken of it in the air.
When Trey and I arrived back at his airport after the airshow he received a call. We were told that Rob had made a forced landing about 20 miles from us on an airport. They wanted to know if we could check/pick up Rob. A friend with a Cessna 296 was at Trey's hangar so they took off to get Rob. Once they arrived it was apparent that the runway was unusable due to junk on the runway. Rob waved that he was OK and other friends were on the way.
So here is his story. I didn't want to say anything until Rob did.
For all those who know or don't know, I thought I would fill you in about the events of the past few days.
First to get it out of the way, I'm 100% fine.
That said, On March 25th I took off from NAS Kingsville, Texas at about 4:30pm for a cross-country flight to Shreveport, Louisiana. About 15 minutes into the flight, level at 11,500 ft., I had a catastrophic engine failure and lost all engine power. I will not speculate as to the cause of the failure and will let the FAA and NTSB finish their investigation.
The Canopy was immediately covered with oil and I had zero forward visibility.
I quickly determined that an off-field landing was not the best option given the terrain. Also, using the parachute was also not a good option due to very high wind speed at the surface. There was one "airport" within gliding distance and I immediately aimed for it. Thank you to MGL Avionics for such an awesome EFIS system, which helped tremendously for my situational awareness.
There was a low scattered-to-broken cloud layer around the vicinity of my landing site which obstructed my view of the runway (I still could only see directly out of the side of the plane due to the oil on the canopy). I glided through an opening in the clouds using GPS as a reference for the location of the airport.
It turns out what I thought was a private airstrip was actually an abandoned airport that was about 30 ft. wide and only 1,650 ft. long (interesting that it is still listed in the FAA Database as an airport). When I finally got low enough so that the clouds no longer obstructed my view of the runway, I was at 700 ft. and committed to making a downwind landing because of my position.
I lined up on the runway as best I could, still having zero forward visibility. I touched down on the runway at about 90 kts. (normal speed for this plane), but with a 20+ knot tailwind bringing my forward speed to 110kts.
What I couldn't see due to the oil on my canopy was a large piece of someone's roof on the runway that had blown there by Hurricane Harvey. After about 200 ft. of landing roll, the left main landing gear struck that piece of debris ripping the landing gear completely off the plane. The plane skidded on its belly down the runway, departing to the side of the runway, coming to rest about 30 ft. off the right side of the runway. The plane remained upright and straight the entire time.
I assessed that I was physically ok, turned off the fuel, the mags, and all electrical power, and then departed the plane.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Got you on the title. You knew it had to be about Airplanes
This past weekend Wifie and I went to Corpus Christi to be with Son Trey and Family to attend the Kingsville NAS Airshow.
Earlier in the week Trey's friend Glen Watson of "Mach Point One Aviation" asked Trey if he would fly a little formation in Glen's Beechcraft A-36 so he could take a picture or two of the Performers. Since we had our SNJ-4 on Static Display at the Air Show it wouldn't be a problem.
Just for the record. All these performers are down to Earth Great Guys and Aviators. They don't take a knee :wink:
From Trey's Facebook
"Had the honor of flying the legendary Glenn Watson at the Wings Over South Texas Air Show today, thanks for the opportunity! Mach Point One Aviation Photography".
Glenn Watson "More like I had the honor of flying with the legendary Trey Hayden!"
If you look REAL hard you can see "J Bird" next to the B-25/PBJ
This is what the photos were taken from.
The Blues aren't the only ones that can fly Formation
The T-45s are from NAS Kingsville and what Trey taught Formation Flying in.
Beechcraft D-18 flown by Matt Younkin, Redline RV-8s of Redline Airshows, and Rob Holland 7 time US Aerobatic Champion and 4 time World Freestyle Champion.
Double Trouble BAD TO THE BONE
Not who you wanted to see during Viet Nam, well maybe if you were at his 6 O'clock
I'm sad to say that the pictures of Rob Holland's plane are the last taken of it in the air.
When Trey and I arrived back at his airport after the airshow he received a call. We were told that Rob had made a forced landing about 20 miles from us on an airport. They wanted to know if we could check/pick up Rob. A friend with a Cessna 296 was at Trey's hangar so they took off to get Rob. Once they arrived it was apparent that the runway was unusable due to junk on the runway. Rob waved that he was OK and other friends were on the way.
So here is his story. I didn't want to say anything until Rob did.
For all those who know or don't know, I thought I would fill you in about the events of the past few days.
First to get it out of the way, I'm 100% fine.
That said, On March 25th I took off from NAS Kingsville, Texas at about 4:30pm for a cross-country flight to Shreveport, Louisiana. About 15 minutes into the flight, level at 11,500 ft., I had a catastrophic engine failure and lost all engine power. I will not speculate as to the cause of the failure and will let the FAA and NTSB finish their investigation.
The Canopy was immediately covered with oil and I had zero forward visibility.
I quickly determined that an off-field landing was not the best option given the terrain. Also, using the parachute was also not a good option due to very high wind speed at the surface. There was one "airport" within gliding distance and I immediately aimed for it. Thank you to MGL Avionics for such an awesome EFIS system, which helped tremendously for my situational awareness.
There was a low scattered-to-broken cloud layer around the vicinity of my landing site which obstructed my view of the runway (I still could only see directly out of the side of the plane due to the oil on the canopy). I glided through an opening in the clouds using GPS as a reference for the location of the airport.
It turns out what I thought was a private airstrip was actually an abandoned airport that was about 30 ft. wide and only 1,650 ft. long (interesting that it is still listed in the FAA Database as an airport). When I finally got low enough so that the clouds no longer obstructed my view of the runway, I was at 700 ft. and committed to making a downwind landing because of my position.
I lined up on the runway as best I could, still having zero forward visibility. I touched down on the runway at about 90 kts. (normal speed for this plane), but with a 20+ knot tailwind bringing my forward speed to 110kts.
What I couldn't see due to the oil on my canopy was a large piece of someone's roof on the runway that had blown there by Hurricane Harvey. After about 200 ft. of landing roll, the left main landing gear struck that piece of debris ripping the landing gear completely off the plane. The plane skidded on its belly down the runway, departing to the side of the runway, coming to rest about 30 ft. off the right side of the runway. The plane remained upright and straight the entire time.
I assessed that I was physically ok, turned off the fuel, the mags, and all electrical power, and then departed the plane.
