PIPER PAGE

A Frank Odell Web Page

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This page is about a bad day for a PACER. This is the story of my connection with the Piper Pacer over the years. Also, another pilot's bad PACER day is included.

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Page History

Page Created: 02/21/98

Last Improvement:
06/07/02 08/28/03 11/23/03 12/17/03 10/25/04 02/03/05 05/23/05 03/21/08

In 1952, I was a child, and I sent off for a brochure from Piper Aircraft concerning their latest product. Many times I read the pamphlet and dreamed of owning one of those airplanes. I wished that I had a Piper Pacer and dreamed about flying in the beautiful blue skies above the Virginia farm I was living on during the summer season. I wished so hard it hurt.

The Pacer was the ultimate in light aircraft in its day. At least that was my opinion. The aircraft was fabric covered, but in those days most light aircraft were built using the steel tube and fabric method of construction.

After a few thousand hours and many years of flying I finally got a ride in my childhood favorite airplane - the Piper Pacer. It was Charleston SC, one 4th of July in the late 1960s. A childhood dream came true -- I flew in a Piper Pacer.

What happened that day was not something caused by any action or inaction by Piper Aircraft, but was caused by an Aircraft Inspector's greed. The Aircraft Inspector signed the aircraft as Airworthy to please a woman and to make a little money. And he damn near killed us.

This story is far to long to recount here, but we can have the high lights.


After departing Johns Island Airport, near Charleston, SC, we were cruising at about 3,500 feet in cruise configuration and we were relaxed and enjoying the South Carolina landscape sliding by under the airplane. Suddenly the fabric on the top of the fuselage ripped off with a very loud bang. The material then trailed back over the vertical stabilizer and rudder and this blocked the airflow over those control surfaces and made them almost useless. It would have been much better if the fabric had torn off completely and left the airplane. The airplane began a rapid roll to the left to near inverted. With full right aileron and full right rudder the aircraft slowly rolled back to normal flight attitude. At full power the engine did not have enough horse power to overcome the drag of the fabric trailing in the wind, so it was down we go. The little airplane became extremely difficult to control and was headed for the ground. It was much like a real life version of Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie "Doctor Strange Love." There were four of us in the airplane on our way to new experiences. With some experimentation the pilot found the combination of controls needed to control the aircraft. We were still loosing altitude, but it was slowly, but surely. Every where we looked there was nothing but trees. The airplane could not be flown in a strait line, it was turning left and nothing could be done to control this constant change in flight direction. In the distance and to our left was a meadow, a cow pasture, and we were headed in that direction whether we wanted to go there or not. The cow pasture was just where we needed it to land with out crashing into trees at a high rate of speed. We touched down on the grass in the cow pasture at about 150 MPH. And things on the airplane started bending. Everything was bent when the airplane stopped sliding. No damage was done to any of the passengers. After our unexpected arrival in a cow pasture near Ravenel, SC the old Pacer still shows its beautiful new paint done in a very nice design. The beautiful paint covered rotten fabric over the windscreen area. Now that really was an "E" Ticket Ride. All four men in the airplane were licensed pilots and I think that played a major role in our survival, because no one was wondering what was happening or what needed to be done. We all knew exactly what was going on. After the noise, dust, dirt and excitement of the landing - the cow pasture was ssoooo quiet. We examined our selves for injuries and the only injury between the four of us was a scratch on the back of the pilots left hand. His hand contacted a radio control panel during the excitement and it was bleeding a little. We decided we were lucky and a bit skillful to have so few injuries. I was wearing shorts and later in the day as we escaped the cow pasture I fell off a log into a group of brier bushes and received some scratches on my legs, but they did not bleed much. There were several cows around and they all seemed interested in the new arrivals. They tried eating the grass under the airplane and they tried eating the fabric off the airplane. In the old days of aviation the fabric was doped with a chemical that cows loved to eat, but our little machine was painted with a later paint and the cows did not like it much. After several notable events involving the airborne Civil Air Patrol we were rescued by a South Carolina State Trooper and his patrol car. The trooper was an experience all his own. Maybe that will be a story for another day. When I finally arrived at home my wife was very upset with me because it was a holiday and we had friends in for supper. Betty had fixed one of her fabulous meals and I was late and the meal had to be reheated. I waited until the friends went home before telling her my story. We still laugh about the episode. It was an interesting day. Note: The FAA inspector told us that there had been 33 other crashes like ours. In one of those the people in the aircraft survived, but were seriously injured. All died in the other 32 crashes. No one was even seriously injuried in our airplane thanks to the skill of pilot, Frank Key. Another note: I found N7631K is still flying, in Washington state, Piper makes a good airplane.

[crash 2]

After departing Johns Island Airport, near Charleston, SC, we were cruising at about 3,500 feet in cruise configuration and we were relaxed and enjoying the South Carolina landscape sliding by under the airplane.

Suddenly the fabric on the top of the fuselage ripped off with a very loud bang. The material then trailed back over the vertical stabilizer and rudder and this blocked the airflow over those control surfaces and made them almost useless. It would have been much better if the fabric had torn off completely and left the airplane. The airplane began a rapid roll to the left to near inverted. With full right aileron and full right rudder the aircraft slowly rolled back to normal flight attitude. At full power the engine did not have enough horse power to overcome the drag of the fabric trailing in the wind, so it was down we go. The little airplane became extremely difficult to control and was headed for the ground. It was much like a real life version of Slim Pickens riding the bomb in the movie "Doctor Strange Love." There were four of us in the airplane on our way to new experiences. With some experimentation the pilot found the combination of controls needed to control the aircraft. We were still loosing altitude, but it was slowly, but surely.

Every where we looked there was nothing but trees. The airplane could not be flown in a strait line, it was turning left and nothing could be done to control this constant change in flight direction. In the distance and to our left was a meadow, a cow pasture, and we were headed in that direction whether we wanted to go there or not. The cow pasture was just where we needed it to land with out crashing into trees at a high rate of speed. We touched down on the grass in the cow pasture at about 150 MPH. And things on the airplane started bending. Everything was bent when the airplane stopped sliding. No damage was done to any of the passengers.

After our unexpected arrival in a cow pasture near Ravenel, SC the old Pacer still [crash 1] shows its beautiful new paint done in a very nice design. The beautiful paint covered rotten fabric over the windscreen area.

Now that really was an "E" Ticket Ride. All four men in the airplane were licensed pilots and I think that played a major role in our survival, because no one was wondering what was happening or what needed to be done. We all knew exactly what was going on. After the noise, dust, dirt and excitement of the landing - the cow pasture was ssoooo quiet.

We examined our selves for injuries and the only injury between the four of us was a scratch on the back of the pilots left hand. His hand contacted a radio control panel during the excitement and it was bleeding a little. We decided we were lucky and a bit skillful to have so few injuries. I was wearing shorts and later in the day as we escaped the cow pasture I fell off a log into a group of brier bushes and received some scratches on my legs, but they did not bleed much.

There were several cows around and they all seemed interested in the new arrivals. They tried eating the grass under the [crash 3] airplane and they tried eating the fabric off the airplane. In the old days of aviation the fabric was doped with a chemical that cows loved to eat, but our little machine was painted with a later paint and the cows did not like it much.

After several notable events involving the airborne Civil Air Patrol we were rescued by a South Carolina State Trooper and his patrol car. The trooper was an experience all his own. Maybe that will be a story for another day.

When I finally arrived at home my wife was very upset with me because it was a holiday and we had friends in for supper. Betty had fixed one of her fabulous meals and I was late and the meal had to be reheated. I waited until the friends went home before telling her my story. We still laugh about the episode.

It was an interesting day.

Note: The FAA inspector told us that there had been 33 other crashes like ours. In one of those the people in the aircraft survived, but were seriously injured. All died in the other 32 crashes. No one was even seriously injuried in our airplane thanks to the skill of pilot, Frank Key.

Another note: I found N7631K is still flying, in Washington state, Piper makes a good airplane.


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