This is the way I understand
it, P.H.
Lowell’s plane had a “dual magneto”, but it was “dual” in name
only.
The magneto was one unit, with one drive, and two magneto
out puts. A failure of this single
unit, could cause the out puts to stop.
When the
magneto unit failed, while he was over unlandable area, a forced landing was
the result.
Below is the newspaper report.
10:00 PM PDT on Monday, April 30, 2007
GOOD HOPE - A 79-year-old pilot walked away with minor injuries from a single-engine plane crash Monday morning in Good Hope, an unincorporated area of Riverside County west of Perris, authorities said.
The plane crash in the backyard of a home in the 22400 block of Mapes Road, a rural area off Highway 74, was reported about 11:30 a.m., said Patrick Chandler, spokesman for the Riverside County Fire Department. The small plane landed in a field and crashed into a wooded area, taking out several trees and narrowly missing a mobile home on the property. One wing was sheared off the plane, Chandler said.
The pilot, Lowell Dexter, of Escondido, was able to get out of the plane on his own, and was taken by ambulance to Riverside County Regional Medical Center for observation, a Riverside County Sheriff's Department news release said.
Story continues below
Sarah
Burge / The Press-Enterprise
A
Cessna 177RG with mechanical problems was forced to land Monday in the backyard
of a home in a rural area near Highway 74. The plane landed in a field and
crashed into a wooded area, taking out several trees and narrowly missing a
mobile home on the property. The pilot walked away from the wreck with minor
injuries.
Jerry Johnston, FAA regional operations officer, said preliminary reports indicate the plane, a Cessna 177RG, departed from the French Valley Airport.
According to the sheriff's news release, Dexter noticed an engine warning light and the plane began to have engine problems. He turned the aircraft around, but mechanical problems forced him to set the plane down before it reached the airport, the release said.
The Riverside County Fire Department hazardous-materials team responded to the crash scene because an estimated 30 gallons of fuel leaked from the plane, Chandler said.
No information about the pilot's intended destination or the official cause of the crash was immediately available.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.