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
6647
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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