A routine flight turned into an adrenaline rush last week during my training. I departed Lafayette Purdue University Airport and traveled southeast to Frankfort Municipal Airport to practice short and soft field takeoff and landings in my Piper Warrior PA-28-161. When I arrived at Frankfort there was a Piper J-3 Cub in the pattern, which I determined to be practicing landings as well. I entered the normal traffic pattern behind the cub and landed shortly after he took off and departed on runway heading. However, when I landed I soon realized that he made a steep bank heading quickly back to the airport. Since the runway is only 2,500 ft long I didn’t have time to back taxi to the beginning of the threshold and takeoff before he landed. I then decided to roll out to the end of the runway and position the airplane in the apron off to the side so he could land safely.
When I turned the plane around the Cub seemed to be on a low approach path and was extremely off to the right side of the runway. I became increasingly nervous as he began to dive down straight towards me. As the tension was building up inside me, he pulled the airplane straight up no more than 20 feet off the ground directly over my airplane. I was astonished to see that he attached himself to an advertising sign seconds before he climbed away from the ground. He flew around the airport for a few minutes to ensure the sign was attached properly and proceeded to fly towards Purdue. I was amazed to learn first-hand how advertising signs are displayed in the air, but couldn’t believe that the only time he ever talked on the radio was to apologize for giving me a scare.
1 comment:
hahaha, well at least he apologized right???
Well i always wondered how they got those things up there too. It looks like a very dangerous stunt to be honest.
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