Volunteers Pull Together To Recondition A Popular Backcountry Airfield - AVweb

I was working as a CFI at a small airport in Pennsylvania back in the late 80s. Our director of maintenance asked me to flight test a Saratoga SP after its annual. I did an extra-long runup to get air bubbles out of the injection system (5 minutes) and then blasted off. Halfway down the 3000 foot runway I rotated. As I was reaching for the gear lever the engine quit.

I was pretty proficient at the time and didn’t think, just acted. I slapped the throttle closed, committing to land (I had read that somewhere–really good idea!) and pushed the nose over hard for the runway. My hope was to dissipate some energy before I ran off the end of the runway and slid down the grass at the end and then downhill into a junk yard. (I remember thinking that it was somehow appropriate that the airplane would come to rest in a junkyard…) I flew the airplane onto the runway and started jumping up and down on the brakes. Much to my surprise I came to a stop at the far end of the runway. The runway at Doylestown at the time was exactly 3000 feet long. I had about 6 feet between my spinner and the grass. I had used 2994 feet. Six feet to spare.

I just finished a 30 year airline career. I always used every foot of runway that I could, sometimes to the annoyance of my peers. How could I not after that little incident?