A gentlman from the Atlanta,Ga. area came in to West Liberty about 10:30am this morning on his way from Ohio to Georga taking his newly purchaced t-craft home. He had managed to get himself a little lost and seen our little airport below him and decided to stop to require his bearings. Not used to what he called short runways(2400') and not know the runway he decided to land on was downhill on a 2% grade. Also this was his first stop after departing this morning and from what I understanf this was the first taylorcraft he had ever flown and was used to high-performance birds and had been flying a 180hp Swift. I watched in dismay as he attempted to land at what looked like cruise speed for the t-craft and he then tried to force it on the ground. He must have crow-hopped a half dozen times before he got it planted on the mains with less then 100' of runway left in front of him and then skidded off the end of the runway,over a steep(2/1 slope)30-40' bank,across the road stopping backward in a driveway off the end of the runway. The gentlmen is 82 years old,said he had been flying for 60 years,and admitted to making almost every rooky mistake in the book all at once. Very nice guy and not a bad looking t-craft. He did suffer what appeared to be some minor to moderate facial injurys because his teeth and jaw were very abrubtly introduced to the yoke but other then a pretty nasty cut lip and a few loose teeth he is fine(shoulder harnesses would have saved him from any injury at all!!!). Here's a couple pics. Hopefully this will end the dreaded 3 for a very long time.
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