Pilot uninjured in emergency landing
By Georgia Fisher
Published January 29, 2008
No one was hurt Sunday when a small, home-built plane made an emergency landing in the 1800 block of Farm-to-Market 758.
The pilot, a 47-year-old man from of San Antonio, reported a sudden power loss after taking off from New Braunfels Municipal Airport about 5:30 p.m.
The man, whose name was unavailable Monday, lost power in his four-seat Velocity XL plane at about 400 feet to 500 feet.
“He landed in a field and did an excellent job doing it,” said Andy Spinks, manager of New Braunfels Municipal Airport.
New Braunfels police, fire and EMS responded to the scene.
“I was very impressed with our emergency services,” Spinks said. “It was a very big non-event.”
The small aircraft struck two nearby fences during the bumpy emergency landing, but sustained only minor scratches.
“It was a rough field he landed in,” Spinks said. “It had a lot of bumps in it, but (the plane) rode it out just fine, and proved itself a very sturdy, airworthy aircraft.”
The Velocity XL, a 200-horsepower, 200 mph, “canard”-style kit plane, has a back-placed engine and design similar to that used by the Wright brothers.
“It's highly efficient,” Spinks said of the plane. “The first aircraft that flew was a canard.”
The owner of an experimental plane must perform regular inspections under guidelines set by the Federal Aviation Administration, and “go through the same test questions and exams as with a regular aircraft,” Spinks said. “Statistics show most are built better than the factory built ones.”
According to a spokesman from the
FAA’s southwest region, the incident was examined by an investigator from the Flight Standards District Office in San Antonio, who was unavailable for comment Monday.
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