Pacific Ditching (and Coast Guard Rescue) Caught on Video

It's not often that a video camera is handy at the exact moment a pilot has to ditch, but that was the case when a pilot ferrying a Cessna 310 to Hawaii from California ran out of fuel on Friday. Charles Mellor, 65, told controllers he was running low on fuel when he was about 500 miles from Hilo, about 11 hours after his departure from Monterey. The Coast Guard sent an HC-130 Hercules from Air Station Barbers Point in Honolulu to escort the airplane. Coast Guard pilots maintained communications with Mellor for more than an hour until his engines quit, about 13 miles from land. After splashing down, Mellor climbed from the cockpit onto the wing. A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew assisted in the rescue, sending a rescue swimmer to fetch Mellor and help hoist him into the helicopter. Mellor was taken to a hospital in Hilo and later released. He suffered no significant injuries, the Coast Guard said.

More at:
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/PacificDitchingCaughtOnVideo_205557-1.html

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Coast Guard
• Charles Mellor
• ditching
• crash
• airplane
• helicopter rescue

[7GolfAlpha]

Why the hell would you take a Cessna 310 from Monterey, CA to Hawaii?

[ButterOnMyBiscuit]

Cali to Hawaii is a ferry ride now?

it takes 5 hours by commercial jet going about 500 mph....

how fast is a Cessna? 205 mph with a 1000-1500 mile range

hawaii is over 2,000 miles away

pilot is an idiot

[h2otek]

@ButterOnMyBiscuit Big difference between a calculated risk and being an idiot! Unless you never leave your bedroom you take (albeit smaller) risks every day. How else is this airplane supposed to get delivered? It is something done all the time. If you see one traffic accident will you quit driving forever? He had a 99% chance of success, but the winds changed. Stuff happens! Better to live life than hide from it!

[Me3xe45]

Go air dales

[zimsplat]

Everything planning aside, excellently preformed ditching.

[sehr56]

He was a very experienced pilot delivering plane to a buyer, Prevailing head winds picked up in route. He was being tracked by airline pilots, and was working with the engine manufacture to figure out the right fuel mixture for maximum efficiency, as well as communicating with the coast guard and ATC. That is why the Coast Guard was exactly at the place the pilot predicted he would run out of fuel, 13 miles short on a 2,400 mile crossing.

[N137LA]

@gnarkillkicksass As a pilot myself, I would never attempt such a flight in a piston aircraft. But your right; a lot of people do in fact ferry aircraft across the Pacific and Atlantic. In 1985, a man at my local airport, flew his Taylorcraft L-2M across the Atlantic Ocean.

[gnarkillkicksass]

@N137LA Safer yes and now days more cost effective but for the last 30 years the majority of light a/c were ferried across the Pacific. It was easier and more cost effective back then hence more logical to owners and operators. and not as dangerous as most think. It mustn't have been pleasant though having a big fuel bladder on board, I know a guy who ditched twice, once at night. Apparently the USCG sent a C-130 out that made a flare path for him and dropped a raft with a strobe nearby.

[N137LA]

@gnarkillkicksass Yeah but at the same time, its much more of a logical/ safer way of shipping an aircraft overseas. Even if he could have made it with enough fuel, twin piston aircraft, or piston aircraft in general, don't nearly have the reliability and safety level as a turbine aircraft. Plus, 5,000' MSL? Can't glide much when your engines fail.

[gnarkillkicksass]

@N137LA Lots come over that way now, the problem is it is still sometimes more expensive. Having the thing put back together and certified by CASA costs a small fortune.

[N137LA]

@gnarkillkicksass How about taking the wings off and shipping it over in a shipping crate?

[gnarkillkicksass]

@ButterOnMyBiscuit You do realise once upon a time, and even today, aircraft as small as a 172 are flown to Australia/NZ. There are companies still doing it and a lot of guys I work with did it when they were younger.