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Gilbert Pierce
06-22-2014, 11:25 AM
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Fred Jackson admits he quietly left his single-engine airplane in the trees between two properties on Gray Road in Altamont, where he'd crashed it a week ago, because he didn't want to report the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Guilderland police reported the incident to the FAA Saturday, a week after it happened, in response to a call from Eugene and Nancy DiCerbo. The couple were scratching their heads Saturday morning after finding the plane at the edge of their bucolic 40-acre Altamont property at 166 Gray Road.

Eugene, 72, spotted it when he'd gone out to a large shed behind the stable where the couple keeps two horses. No one was in it. And as it was camouflaged by a stand of trees, the DiCerbos weren't sure how long it had been there. The couple is used to hearing small aircraft, as a private landing strip is located nearby, at 125 Gray Road.

By early afternoon, neighbors had gathered at their home, speculating on a bona fide mystery. What happened to the pilot, they wondered. Was the plane stolen?

Town police tracked the plane down to Jackson, a 75-year-old pilot who said he had been flying from Hamilton, Madison County, to the Altamont landing strip when he had engine trouble, overshot the runway and crashed into trees, Sgt. Michael A. Minette said.

Jackson, found at his Niskayuna home watering his patch of 1,500 German stiff-head garlic bulbs, offered more details.

A pilot since he was 17, he prized the plane, built from a frame he bought in 2000 to replicate a 1949 Piper Clipper. He has spent about $100,000 restoring it. It hadn't been airborne for three or four years until last week, as it was undergoing restorations, including longer wings with tips made to droop. He was going to show it off at a Piper Aircraft "fly-in" in Lock Haven, Pa., where the planes were once made.

Jackson was excited to get his plane in the air last week. He left Hamilton, where restoration work had been completed, at about 11:30 a.m. Less than an hour later, he was ready to land in Altamont, but things didn't go as expected. The engine failed, and Jackson "didn't have the feel" for how it handled, as the restorations had affected its flight. Jackson expected the plane to descend faster, for one thing. Fearing he would hit a building, he steered for the trees and a relatively soft landing.

He got that, and a quiet landing, too, he said, as the engine wasn't spinning. He climbed out of the plane and down a tree. He had merely a scratch, where the bridge of his eyeglasses had pushed against his face on the way down.

"It's almost impossible to kill yourself in a Piper," Jackson said, smiling, and adding that this isn't the first time he's crashed.

Jackson said, he told the occupant of the home next to the DiCerbos about the incident. Neighbors said that occupant was renting the property from Carver Laraway of Carver Companies. A Laraway's representative said Saturday he was aware of the plane.

Jackson, a retired project engineer for Jackson Demolition in Niskayuna, the business his father started, said he planned to use tractors from the business to move the aircraft. Trouble is, he didn't do it right away. Jackson said Saturday that he regrets that decision now.

Instead, he went to Pennsylvania Tuesday, to enjoy the company of other Piper enthusiasts, even without his plane. He's been going to these fly-ins since 1988.

Saturday, Jackson was considering how his plane has caused him nothing but trouble, and how with a little repair, he could get it back in the air.

"It was just bad luck," he said of the accident. "And good luck."

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Plane-found-on-Altamont-property-had-crashed-a-5569831.php

Clayton Harper
06-22-2014, 12:45 PM
Good to know, "you almost can't get killed in a Piper".

Steve Pierce
06-22-2014, 02:38 PM
That wing is way extended outboard of the aileron.

Clayton Harper
06-22-2014, 04:19 PM
Might be a good reason to run, if not approved.

richas
06-23-2014, 10:37 AM
$100,000 ??!!!

Stephen
06-23-2014, 12:14 PM
$100,000 ??!!!

How much did he put into the engine? Or gas.

Clayton Harper
06-23-2014, 12:16 PM
$100,000 ??!!!
Extended wing field approval.

richas
06-23-2014, 12:27 PM
Extended wing field approval.

Really????


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wyandot jim
06-23-2014, 12:54 PM
"Jackson said he was test flying the Clipper after its $100,000 restoration, which included adding drooping wing extensions."

What am I missing here?? The droop tips are not STC for the Clipper
Jim Who is trying to learn this Piper stuff :-)

Clayton Harper
06-23-2014, 03:47 PM
Extended wing field approval.
No, that was a sad attempt at humor.

stevesaircraft(Bri)
06-23-2014, 06:16 PM
Look real close at those pictures and you can see EXPERIMENTAL clearly written on the bottom of the wing.

Brian.

Kurts
06-23-2014, 08:18 PM
Two thumbs down on droop tips. Especially on a rare airplane like a Clipper. Stop butchering these things!

rocket 204
06-23-2014, 08:52 PM
I think the wing extension is what held it up in the trees. More humor

Steve Pierce
06-24-2014, 06:34 AM
Good catch Brian.

Frank Green
06-24-2014, 11:29 AM
The 100k includes 2 attempts at installing a austalian rotec radial engine on this plane. After that they decided to go back to a Lyc. It is (was) a beautiful plane. The experimental sign is from the radial mods not the wing tips. All mods approved. Leaving it in the trees for a week while you went to sentimental was dumb.

pa20
06-24-2014, 05:17 PM
Jackson said, smiling, and adding that this isn't the first time he's crashed.

And this surprises whom?

Frank Green
06-25-2014, 06:41 AM
He's been flying for almost 60 years, don't knock the pilot, the engine quit and he landed with out a scratch. Just dumb to leave it there. I have often thought when flying over wooded areas, we have a lot of them here in upstate NY, what the best way to land in trees would be. Somebody told me to go for pine trees as they bend at the top and get stronger as you go down. Any of you AK guys have any experience in tree landings?

Clayton Harper
06-25-2014, 09:56 AM
Frank, When you put it like that, I owe the pilot an apology. It's a "good one" if you can walk away from it. Additionally, he is older than I, and was able to climb down out of the tree. That alone is to be admired, and he was healthy enough to compartmentalize and just go on to SJ.
Come to think of it, the advise my instructor gave me as he closed the door on the 7AC ($6.60 per hour-wet) for my first solo was "If the engine quits find a couple of pine trees, and strip the wings off." (Instruction received 5/17/64)

pa20
06-25-2014, 10:12 AM
Frank, When you put it like that, I owe the pilot an apology. It's a "good one" if you can walk away from it. Additionally, he is older than I, and was able to climb down out of the tree. That alone is to be admired, and he was healthy enough to compartmentalize and just go on to SJ.
Come to think of it, the advise my instructor gave me as he closed the door on the 7AC ($6.60 per hour-wet) for my first solo was "If the engine quits find a couple of pine trees, and strip the wings off." (Instruction received 5/17/64)
Yep, what Clayton said! Glad he was relatively unscathed.

Larry2011
07-19-2014, 08:53 AM
I love this site; believe it or not i took away some life saving information from this accident.(and not the first or last time)
Not a big tree hugger, but i am now . . . for Pines.