AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2021 - 100

P&E NEVER AGAIN
Bad advice
Regretting the choice to stay awhile
BY CHARLES MOORE
in agreement that it was probably a good
idea that he had hung up his wings.
After our meeting concluded, I asked
him to take me back to the airport before
the bad weather blew in. However, pointing
out the office window at the sunny sky,
Joe insisted on an early lunch with another
colleague joining us at a local restaurant.
Bowing to peer pressure and Joe's insistence
that the weather would be fine, I
relented and agreed to lunch. As I ate my
hamburger, I saw the trees begin to sway in
the wind as the breeze picked up from the
west. With the north/south runway and
my lack of experience in crosswind situations,
the flight home was beginning to
bother me.
Once lunch was completed, Joe
IT WAS MAY 7, 2008. I was so excited. The
proud owner of a 1972 Piper Cherokee
PA-28-140 and recently certificated, I was
using my airplane for a business meeting
for the very first time. About an hour north
of my home airport, Allegheny County
Airport (AGC) in Pennsylvania, was the
small rural town of Zelienople with a nice
little airport (PJC) that has a runway orientation
of north/south rather than east/
west, which is more common for the area.
I would be departing around 9 a.m.
with clear skies but by 1 p.m., storms
were going to enter the area and ruin the
wonderful VFR conditions. After talking
with flight service, I decided that if
I was back in the air by 11 or 11:30 a.m. I
would safely beat the oncoming weather
for the short flight back from Zelienople
to Allegheny County.
100 | AOPA PILOT July 2021
The business associate I was going to
meet, a pilot, provided me with instructions
on how to approach Zelienople. On
one end was water and the other a small
rolling hill that hid the runway when
turning base to Runway 17. This nontowered
airport provided some challenges to a
newly minted pilot like me. On final, once
you approach the top of the hill, you pull
full flaps and drop nice and smooth on the
runway. All went perfect. I was so proud of
myself and so excited to see my colleague
waiting to pick me up and take me to his
office. What fun.
During our meeting, I asked my colleague,
let's call him Joe, if he still flew and
what kind of airplane he owned. He told
me about his Piper 6X but that he sold it
after making one too many bad decisions as
a pilot. I listened to his stories and nodded
promptly drove me to the airport, but by
this time the windsock was horizontal
blowing west to east. Here is where the fun
ended. Upon entering my airplane, I discovered
that my excitement upon landing had
caused me to exit the airplane too quickly
and not completely shut down-leaving the
master switch in the On position. It was
then that I discovered that my older airplane
with older battery did not hold a charge very
long with the master on. I was sitting in a
dead bird with no juice. Cussing myself, I
walked to the FBO to ask for jumper service.
All of this was burning time and the weather
was getting worse. No rain yet but the wind
was picking up.
My plan at this point was to watch for
the windsock to show a break in the wind,
taxi out, and take off as quickly as possible.
I would then head south and land at my
home airport on Runway 10/28, which was
more than a mile long and 150 feet wide,
plenty of room to put the bird down even
with gusty winds. However, Mother Nature
had other plans. She faked me out with
SARAH HANSON
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2021

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