REFLECTOR: N44VF off airport landing

[Brainard, Jerry]

Just in case you see this AvWeb Picture of the Week from Rough River, it
is not the Ferrell Velocity.  The immediate give away is that N44VF did
not have a folded nose gear.  Cool picture though.

- jerry

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Brett Ferrell
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 7:23 PM
To: reflector
Subject: REFLECTOR: N44VF off airport landing

I know that folks have been anxious to hear about our off-airport
landing this weekend.  You guys have been really great with all of the
well-wishs and kind words, and although it's been a very hectic few days
I did want to get the information out to folks as quickly as we
reasonably could.

First up, let me say that I'm sorry for any negative affect that our
incident has on our Velocity community, we're aware that we don't exist
in isolation.  Too that end, I'll mention that the FAA did downgrade
this to an incident, so that's good news, and said that they did not
believe that any 'action' was warranted or some such, which I took to
mean we were in pretty good shape.  Second, let me say that Elizabeth
did a great job of flying us to the road, and I feel that this is
directly related to the excellent training she received, first from the
factory, and then with Dave Bertram who did her high power XL and EFIS
transition training.  I really recommend folks avail themselves of these
resources, you are worth the investment.

Next I'll say that we did get, on the whole, decent reporting.  Maybe
that's because we landed in Mayberry, RFD, but it was refreshing.  You
can check out the stories below if you'd like.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809280516
http://www.fox41.com/Global/story.asp?S=9085833
http://www.wesh.com/news/17574062/detail.html

So, here are the top line facts, and if you'd like to read a fully
accounting you can do so at our website:
http://n44vf.velocityxl.com/incident.php

While in cruise flight at about 160 kts and 2,500' MSL below a solid
overcast layer en route to Rough River, we blew the hard tubed oil line
to the nose cooler at a 3-way valve.  That valve allows a second cooler
that recircs cabin air in the winter to be activated.  The cause of that
failure is not yet known, but the oil pressure immediately went to 0
psi, and the cabin started to fill with hot oil.  We weren't talking to
anyone, and weren't able to declare an emergency before landing on
Highway 3 in Otisco, Indiana, a two lane country road.  We landed
without major incident, but did strike a a reflector street post while
avoiding stopped traffic on rollout.  The engine as running at shutdown,
and we believe the only damage to be where the pole struck the copilot
wing, mid-section, which we hopeful will be a straightforward repair.  I
encourage folks to read the longer account to know more, and to see what
an APRS tracker (as written about in a recent Kitplanes article) can!
  offer, as well as our impressions and recollections from the
experience.

Brett
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