It wasn't the dummest thing I'd ever seen, but - - -
One day a awhile back a bunch of us were hanging around the office at West Texas airport watching the gliders being towed into the air by a supercub. This reminded me of an incident that I watched the tail end of, and it might be of interest to you. It seems this fellow up in Deming, New Mexico, had located an Aircoupe over near Douglas, Airzona and dickered with the owner until they were both satisfied. All this dealing went on by telephone and the owner made sure the new buyer was aware that the Aircoupe needed some work before it would fly.
The prospective owner managed to locate a mechanic friend who had a Tri Pacer and they arranged to fly up on the weekend and get the Aircoupe. Saturday morning was one of those hot summer days and the turbulance was pretty heavy. Never-the-less they made it to a short dusty strip about 12 miles north of Douglas, where the Aircoupe had been stored for the last few years. After paying the owner the agreed on price, they pulled it out of the run-down shack, swept most of the dust off it and set to work. The tires were flat and had to be aired, with a hand-pump. All of the inspection plates were removed and bird and rat nests dug out. The mechanic friend went to work on the engine and soon found that the left mag wouldn't spark, so he pulled it apart hoping to find that he could fix it. It turned out it couldn't be fixed that easy, so they concentrated on getting the engine to run. Jumping the battery they cranked and cranked, and finally got it fired up. But they could only get 1500 rpm out of it, because of the bad mag. It was getting late in the afternoon so they thought they'd better knock off for the day and see if they could locate a new mag, or at least a coil for the old one. Calling all over western Airzona and southern New Mexico failed to produce anything. The closest place that had a mag was Oklahoma City, and that was too far and out of the running.
So, the old owner put the two up for the night and they sat around after supper discussing what they should do in the morning. As an after-thought they went out and put a charger on the battery. The new Aircoupe owner had a friend in El Paso with an Aircoupe, but when they phoned his home found he was in Dallas with the plane. The only other fellow he knew well enough to ask lived in Albuqurque, but that was too far also. Things weren't looking so bright for our duo until the mechanic thought of the 50 foot coil of nylon rope he had in the back of the Tri Pacer.
'What if I towed you back to Deming?',
he said.
It was still light enough to see so they went out to the planes and looked things over. The tail-skid/tie-down on the Tri Pacer was ideal for tying off one end, but where to tie onto the Aircoupe? Loop it around the prop? Or, around the front wheel strut? The mechanic thought the prop would be best, but the new owner thought the strut would be best. He reasoned that they could rig up something for a quick-disconnect that he could disengage from the cockpit. With the help of the seller they located a 20 foot section of rope which they looped several times around the strut and made a slip knot that could be pulled loose from the cockpit. Testing it out they thought this would work fine. Neither of the two had any glider experience but they assured each other that it should work out ok, so they hit the sack for the night.
The next morning the mechanic gave the mag another going over, but just couldn't get any juice out of the coil. Putting it back together he reinstalled the mag and buttoned up the cowling. It was still cool enough so they thought if they were going to do it, they'd better do it. Pulling the Aircoupe out to the end of the strip they rigged it up and made sure everything was ready. The mechanic taxied the Tri Pacer into place and soon they had the two planes tied in tandem. Revving up the 150 horses the mechanic leaned it out for best power, put in the first notch of flaps and released the brakes. Away they went and halfway down the strip the Aircoupe was skimming along, airborne. Unfortunately, this put a heck of an upload on the tail of the Tri Pacer and when he tried to rotate it took all his strength to haul the yoke back and hold it there. Even in this attitude the Tri Pacer barely cleared the brush at the end of the runway and it was several minutes before they had 100 foot of elevation. By the time it hit them that the whole idea wasn't all that smart, it was too late.
They headed southwest for several miles before they attempted to make a turn towards Deming. But with the constant back pressure on the yoke, even with full-up trim cranked in the mechanic was getting tired, and knew he wouldn't be able to make it to Deming. Especially after he tried a gentle turn to the left and almost lost the whole ball-of-wax. Full power, full up trim, and 40 or 50 pounds of pull on the yoke would barely produce a 50 foot per minute climb rate. Now, if only he could manage a very, very gentle turn right he'd be lined up for a straight in approach to Douglas. Getting on the radio he advised them of his predictiment and soon everyone on the field, including myself was outside watching the inevitable. While the mechanic had his hands full keeping the pair in the air, the Aircoupe driver was up to his armpits in wake turbulence. I'm sure most of you have run into someone's wake turbulence at one time or another, but imagine being tied 50 feet behind and unable to get into clear air. When they'd first taken off from the strip and they had a couple of hundred feet of altitude the Aircoupe pilot had yanked at the slip knot to get rid of this death-trap situation he'd gotten into. But, the slip knot wouldn't slip, and the empty highway below him only mocked him. When he realized that the mechanic was going to try for Douglas he put his brain in gear trying to figure a way out of this mess. He knew that the mechanic was probably going to fly over the runway and hope his partner-in-tow had sense enough to cut loose and land. But, how the heck was he going to get that towline loose? Lacking a knife he'd wore his hands raw yanking on the slip knot rope and instinctively knew that method was a lost cause. Thinking of the battery being charged during the night he thought maybe he could fire up the engine and cut the tow rope. It was the only thing he could think of.
So, with about 800 feet altitude and nearing the approach end of the runway he mentally crossed his fingers and tried to start the engine. From the ground we all stood there wondering when the Aircoupe would drop the rope and land. But, when we saw the prop on the plane start turning our jaws dropped in amazement. When the engine fired up it took off with more zoom then the pilot thought it would, but, instead of cutting the rope, it wound it around the prop, around and around, shaking the heck out of the Aircoupe. Before the pilot could react and chop power the rope was wound all the way up, into the tail of the Tri Pacer. Of course, this stopped the Aircoupe engine, but what the heck was going to happen now. We on the ground all braced ourselves for a terrific smash-up. With the nose of the Aircoupe jammed into the tail feathers of the Tri Pacer, that should have been the end of it, but, as bad as the first arrangement was this new configuration was an improvement.
There wasn't any tail control for the hapless mechanic so he had to rely on his partner for
horizontal control. It didn't take the partner long to realize this and experimenting he
discovered he could get the Tri Pacer to climb by pushing his elevator down, and vis-a-versa.
Of course there was no rudder control and turns had to be made with the Tri Pacer ailerons.
As weird as this all looked to us on the ground, (they looked like a couple of dragonflies in
the mating season) we quickly decided that just maybe they'd be able to come out of this alive.
Things on the ground were very tense as we watched with bated breath. But, not as tense
as in the two cockpits. The Aircoupe pilot managed to get the Tri Pacer coaxed up to about
1200 feet and about this time the Tri Pacer pilot started a gentle turn to the right. Both planes
were bobbing up and down pretty good, and the Aircoupe was doing a shimmy, but incredibly
the whole she-bang continued to fly. A long downwind and then a gentle turn for final had
the two lined up to land.
The Aircoupe jockey had to use a lot of imagination, and skill (luck) to make a controlled descent but in short time (forever, to his way of thinking) they were 40 to 50 feet over the runway. Once in ground effect, the little Aircoupe lost most vertical control and the Tri Pacer pilot had to quickly use the throttle for this control. The end of the runway was fast approaching and the mechanic sure didn't want to get this mess up in the air again, so he yanked on full flaps and mushed into the ground. Both planes hit pretty hard but the pilots were on the brakes as hard as they could get, and a few seconds later were stopped. Things looked pretty sorry, but they were stopped, safe on the ground. The Tri Pacers shock cords had snapped and the main wheels were sprawled out like a ruptured goose, and the Aircoupe's main tires blew out. By the time those of us on the ground drove out to the landing site, the two pilots were out of the planes and hugging each other. When we all arrived on the scene we congratulated the two heroes on saving their skins, but the FAA man with us wanted their license's. He was hot under the collar and counted off all kinds of violations. But the more he ranted, the more the two pilots grinned at each other.