June 2002 - American Bonanza Society

ody. just happy that we passedOK. Please keep it quiet. I will submita report when I make the returntrip,"I did so and then learned thatthe DC-4 was an Air Force aircraftthat had returned from a nightnight, discharged a load of militarypassengers and was then making theshort hop to the Air Force base, rightacross the river from ationa!. Ilearned that the captain of the airplanewas the safety officer at thatair base. He had been flying at night,was tired, and he and his copilot hadmistaken my clearance to take off asbeing for him.On my return trip, I talked tothe tower operators on the phoneand they told me that many peoplein the terminal building had seenthe whole "show" through thathuge window and that two womenhad fainted! The news media hadnot been informed so there was no•..-"....-~A1RI'ORT DIAGRAMVintage runway diagram of Washington Notionaladverse publicity. If such an eventhappened today, there would be headlines all over the country.Another very sad evenl occurred at National Airport thatSlightly involved me, also whi le I was flying a Constellation. Iwas making a perfectly normal landing, to the north over thewater at the south end of Runway I. As J touched down andstarted to roll, J heard the tower operator excitedly say somethingabout a crash and then call for emergency equipment.A Bonanza had been cleared to land behind me and, as itcame in over that same water, it suddenly rolled over invertedand crashed into the rocky, shallow water. The three peopleaboard were killed instantly. They were Mr. and Mrs. Whited,.._.~.__ W~1ON ..... ~(IX·AIiand IYlr. White's secretary. He wasthe owner of White SewingMachines, I was told. At that timewe had not learned to avoid thesevere vortices of heavy airplanes.I once flew a Lockheed L- 188Electra alongside a contrail createdby another Electra but 10 milesbehind it. J was amazed at theextremely rapid rotation of thevisible mist at that great distancebehind the wingtip that created it,so stayed clear of it.A few years ago on the first dayof heavy traffic at the annual fly-inat Oshkosh, J was landing myBonanza on Runway 27 behind amere P-51. The Bonanza suddenlyrolled to at least a 60-degree rightbank with the wingtip almosttouching the ground. I barelyrecovered, using full aileron, andwas very surprised that such asmall airplane as a P-51 couldcause such a strong vortice. otonly was I shaken by the incident,my two passengers-my grandson and great-grandson-werealso really "shook."Those of you who fly to OSH on the first day know howclose together we land, two or three at a time on the runway,right behind one another. Wingtip vortices can be very vicious,proportional to the aircraft weight but inversely to its speed.During the past 76 years, ABS member John M. Miller has flown just about everythingfrom Jennys to jets. John welcomes comments. Write to him at 201Kingwood Park, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601. or e-moil him atjennYS2jets@juno.comOF SPECIAL NOTE: Ifyou'reafartofJohn Miller's wonderful articles in the ABS Magazine-and whoisn't?-you'll definitely want to make the trip to Wichita for theSeptember 18-22 annual convention. John has graciously agreedto allow us to compile his stories in a book as a fund-raiserfor the ABS Air Safety Foundation Endowment Fund. Asan introduction to the drive, John will be present at theconvention for a book-signing party! Meet the author,support the ABS! ASF Endowment Fund andaway with an on-the-spot autographed copy.Now who could pass up such a once-in-alifetimeopportunity?ASS June 2002 Page 7327