I Learned About Flying From That: Breaking In a New Airplane

Roy Clennan

Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 09:17 PM ET

Verified

To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go to
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Key Takeaways:

A pilot purchases an old 1970 B58 Baron with a history of questionable maintenance and suspicious logbook entries concerning its landing gear.
During the initial flight, the landing gear fails to extend, the manual extension crank jams, and the left engine unexpectedly quits due to fuel issues.
The pilot successfully restarts the engine and, after forcefully engaging the manual gear mechanism, performs an emergency landing where the partially extended gear surprisingly holds.
The experience underscores the importance of diligent pre-flight inspections, trusting one's instincts about potential problems, and the invaluable role of recurrent pilot training in handling complex emergencies.

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I was in the grocery store picking up some food for Super Bowl Sunday when I got the call. The offer I made on the 1970 B58 Baron had been accepted. A quick look online showed that there was one flight leaving that afternoon for Arkansas, and in three hours I was on my way.

The airplane was old and tired and had been ridden hard and put to bed wet. The logbooks were missing prior to 1980, and maintenance in the last five years was questionable. However, the engines were almost new and the aircraft served my purpose well. I live on St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, and was looking for an island hopper. I just wanted enough airplane to be able to feel safe and secure as I explored the Caribbean. My plan was to do a compression check and a thorough inspection of the airplane. If it looked good, I was going to fly it out to Colorado for an annual inspection.