Cruising the bike down through PCH, noticed cops/news/EMT on a side street to the beach in Seal Beach, CA. Someone had set down N51E on the sand, wheels down, 3 blade prop was fine, looked like a nice job considering the surface. FlightAware can’t find the number and no one in the “crowd” was talking. It looked like a homebuilt with decided P-51 flavors, hence maybe the number reference. Had a big V-8 sign on the side of the fuselage. Anyone have a clue??
Frank
Looks like an Extra 300L with a retro paint scheme.
that’s what the news people are saying. from an outfit at Fullerton Airport called Air Combat USA, one of those take you up and let you dogfight someone. engine stopped, no reason given, supposedly made it 3-4 miles in a glide to the beach, minor propeller damage (didn’t see any from 30-40 feet) ex-Marine pilot on the stick and the customer, now THAT would be an adventure to tall the folks back home. hmmm, wonder if he got a refund or if he had to pay extra for the additional thrill??
Acrobatic Plane Makes Emergency Landing on SoCal Beach
October 19, 2007, 8:19 PM PDT
It wasn’t a Beechcraft, but a beachcraft.
The pilot of a two-seater stunt plane made an emergency landing today on the sand in Seal Beach, police said.
The emergency landing occurred around 11 a.m. on the beach between 12th and 13th streets, said Sgt. Bob Mullins of the Seal Beach Police Department.
The 1996 Extra 300L two-seater lost power while flying over the ocean near the beach, he said.
“It came very fast by my house and then landed where it is now,” local resident Michael Peffer told KCAL9. “When it landed, it kinda spun a little bit and kinda took a nosedive.”
The pilot was able to glide the airplane onto the beach with only minor damage to the plane, and no injuries or property damage was reported on the ground, Mullins said.
Because it was a weekday, the beach was not crowded, giving the pilot room to land.
However, the landing was a close call for one beachgoer, who said she was sunbathing and listening to music with earplugs when she heard a loud noise, opened her eyes and saw one of the plane’s wings go over her head.
The plane’s passenger, a former Marine aviator, said he was given the flight on the stunt plane as a birthday present. He said the pilot was doing acrobatic stunts about six miles out over the ocean and about to return to Fullerton when the engine started sputtering.
“What was going through my mind is, `stay calm, allow (the pilot) to focus on doing what he needed to do and not add to the tension of the moment,”’ he told KCAL. “I felt confident we’d be okay. I was just concerned about the people on the beach.”
He told the television station he would definitely do it again.
“I think in some respects it’s a really good experience, because you train and you talk about doing these kinds of things. You do it, then you can say, `okay, he’s a survivor,”’ he said.
It wasn’t a Beechcraft, but a beachcraft.
Groan.
Thanks for the detail, otherwise though. 