Topping pilot escapes injury after WWI replica’s engine quits
by Tom Chillemi –
“If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing,” said U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager. “If you can use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.”
By Yeager’s criteria, pilot Michael Kuhnert’s emergency landing on Oct. 1 in Wake was “good,” but not “outstanding.”
Kuhnert of Topping has logged more than 9,500 hours in the air since he started flying. In his 23 years in the air he had never had to make an emergency landing — until last week.
Kuhnert had just gassed up the replica of a 1917 World War I Fokker Dr. I three-winged plane at Hummel Field airport in Topping. The skies were clear and winds were light.
Engine problem
About a mile from Hummel, the plane’s single engine quit suddenly, said Kuhnert, adding it didn’t sputter or miss as an engine might if it had a fuel problem.
He tried to restart the engine but was unsuccessful. Flying at about 1,500 feet, he started looking for a descent place to make an emergency landing. This time of year most fields still have corn or soybeans in them, he said.
Kuhnert spotted the nicely manicured lawn of Brenda Cordle, who lives in Wake at 185 Willow Lane, which is about a mile south of Hummel and a short ways from Regent Road, behind the Freeshade Community Center.
Cordle was outside picking up black walnuts when she heard a “pow, bang . . . I was afraid it was the house.”
She quickly moved towards the noise and looked to see a red airplane in her side yard with its nose in the dirt and rear rudder high in the air. She dialed 911 about 11:23 a.m.
Kuhnert, 61, was uninjured and unhooked the seatbelt harness and got out of the single seat airplane.
At the scene, Kuhnert explained that he had clipped a power line “fairly lightly” and it didn’t slow the plane much. The plane flew a short ways further and touched down at the edge of a soybean field. “When it hit the beans, over she went,” said Kuhnert.
The wooden propellor contacted the ground and was cracked. The impact popped spokes from the wheel’s rims, which were bent.
Firefighters from the Hartfield Volunteer Fire Department responded and remained on scene for about three hours. They ran a water line from the truck as a precaution. A small amount of fuel leaked but was collected in two containers by firefighters, said volunteer firefighter Kyle McNamee.
Lucky
While the emergency landing was not “outstanding” by Yeager’s definition, Kuhnert was fortunate. Dominion Energy safety specialist Bernard Moughon said that the plane only contacted one wire. Had it contacted two wires at that same time the outcome could have been more serious. The wire the plane broke carries 7,200 volts, he said.
Crews had restored power by 2 p.m.
The Federal Aviation Administra-
tion (FAA) sent an investiga-
tor to the scene. A neighbor used his tractor to help Kuhnert attach a rope so the plane could be righted. A passerby assisted in the effort, along with pilots who came to the scene.
After it was righted, they waited for the investigator before removing the wings so the plane could be put on a trailer and taken for repairs.
The plane is a full-sized replica of the tri-plane flown by German World War I ace Baron von Richthofen, nicknamed the Red Baron. Historical accounts credit von Richthofen with being WWI’s deadliest fighter pilot — he shot down 80 allied aircraft. The Hummel-based replica is covered in cloth stretched over a lightweight metal frame, while the original plane had wooden frame. The 2019 Airdrome Aeroplane is owned by the Forgotten Heroes Foundation.
