Monday the 14th. First leg a short hop to Michigan City (MGC) in Indiana. M took off, made a good-bye pass over the field and I lifted Isabo off behind her. We coordinated as best we could, discovering that the hand held radio in the Hawker provided less than ideal communications between planes. We lost touch prior to reach MGC but heard M entering the pattern. As I entered downwind, I noted the Hawker on the runway and then that it was in an unusual attitude. “Clay, the plane is on the ground nose down! She’s crashed!” I blurted.
With Clay beside himself with worry, I immediately called the emergency frequency declaring a plane down on the runway and then carefully made one of my best short field landings ever, coming to a stop a few yards from the downed plane. By this time M was out, and we saw with relief that she was unharmed. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the Hawker Fury – she was done flying for the foreseeable future. Her right main landing gear had failed just after touchdown, collapsing so the nose and prop dove into the runway.
Al, our Watervliet host, arrived with friends to help. They drug the Hawker to parking, removed her wings and loaded her into a big rental truck.
Clay made the decision to drive home while M and I flew Isabo. This was a sad chapter in the trip, basically bringing it to an end, at least as planned.
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