"TheJWT" (thejwt)
11/11/2020 at 13:38 • Filed to: None
8
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"TheJWT" (thejwt)
11/11/2020 at 13:38 • Filed to: None | 8
| 14 |
I had just gotten my first car, a 1993 Nissan Sentra SE-R which has
been well documented on these pages. One afternoon I was hanging out
with my friend, who for the sake of this story I’ll just refer to
as “A”, and his friend, “T”. A had recently bought a new (to
him) car, a manual 2nd-gen Cavalier Coupe. (We were teenagers. Don’t
expect the choices in this story to get any better from there) With
our collective pride for our cars blinding us from how godawful they
actually were, we got the idea that it would be cool to borrow my
parents’ DSLR, find a cool spot, and get some half decent photos of
them together.
A’s dad was a
private pilot; he owned a couple of propeller planes (a couple King
Airs and a Pilatus PC-12, if my memory serves) that he kept in a
hangar at Cleveland’s main airport. Every once in a while after
school, he would take us up there to wash one or two. He would
exploit our enthusiasm to be around expensive machines in a place
that ordinary people weren’t allowed to be as free labor, and we’d
happily clean out discarded champagne bottles from the passenger
compartments. Even better, because A wanted to follow in his father’s
footsteps and be a pilot, occasionally we would all go out for a
flight around Northeast Ohio, practicing touch-and-goes at some of
the suburban airstrips. One of these was a quiet and run-down old
airfield surrounded by farmland a few miles west of the town where we
lived.
That was as a high school sophomore, and I was now a college freshman returning home from New York for the summer. I didn’t need a car; I was working a part-time summer job cutting produce at the local grocery store about a mile from my house. I could (and often did) borrow my mom’s car, but eventually car-guy temptation got the best of me, and $2000 later I was the extremely proud owner of a leaky, SR20-powered tin can of a car with a horrible exhaust and an intolerably heavy clutch.
The airfield that A had practiced his landings at years ago had only fallen into a greater state of disrepair. I would drive by it on my way to the driving range I used to go to, and see the ever growing weeds and rusting front gate swung wide open, beckoning me in. I was a Top Gear obsessive as a teenager, and the thought of having my own disused airfield to test the limits of my car in peace was just about the most exciting thing I could fathom. So that afternoon, when we decided we should get some pictures of our cars, there was zero hesitation for where we should go. Static shots in front of hangars and rusted machinery, rolling shots on the runway, maybe even a video or two of us flying down the mile long pavement; the plan was perfect.
A and T took the
Cavalier, and I threw the camera and tripod into my Sentra and set
off. Once we got there, A spent some time talking to an elderly man
who was there working on a lawn mower he kept in one of the hangars,
and T and I staged the cars around in the best way we as completely
untrained automotive photographers could. Eventually, happy with our
pictures, it was time for what we had really come there for.
It’s at this point I should interject with the acquired knowledge that driving a car on a runway is not all that it’s cracked up to be on TV. In the case of this rural airstrip, imagine a dead straight country road, except much worse. It was cracked, patched, potholed, overgrown with weeds, you name it… Its orientation was north-south, perpendicular to the road. All of the hangars and other buildings were located at the end closest to the road, and a dense forest sat at the opposite end. Planes landing from the north- the forest end- would have to come in over the treetops and dip down to land, missing the first couple hundred feet of runway. We ended up at that far north end, since it saw the least amount of wear from landing airplanes due to the somewhat tricky approach.
I don’t think I
cracked 40mph on the way there; the condition of the runway would’ve
shaken my poor Nissan (and my spine) to a fine powder if I had gone
any faster. The north end was at least acceptable, so A set up the
tripod about 500’ from that end of the runway with the camera
pointing north. I had recently bought and installed a new muffler on
my car, replacing the Apexi fart can with a much quieter, yet better
sounding one. I wanted to hear for myself how it sounded from outside
the car, so my plan was to start out directly in front of the camera,
rev it a few times, and then launch it for the remaining 500’. At
the end, I would pull a U-turn, and then do a fly-by past the camera
at full throttle. A and T stood at the camera setup with their car
parked nearby; after my run they were going to do the same thing. I
set off on my pass, again probably not even exceeding the speed limit
on the road we came there on, turned around, flew by the camera, and
kept on the throttle for a bit longer until the surface started
getting really bad. There was a small paved turn-around up ahead, so
I popped into neutral and coasted towards it.
Out of my open window, I heard another engine coming up behind me. I was confused why A would do his run before I got done with mine since he was operating the camera. The engine got louder as I approached the turn around. Finally before turning, I came to a stop because it sounded like A was coming at me at full throttle and I didn’t want to turn into him if he was going to pass me, which I thought he was going to do. The engine got louder still. I finally popped my head out of my window to see what the hell he was doing.
A Cessna Caravan buzzed by overhead, not 15’ of the top of my car. My brain went completely blank. I stalled my car where I was at, with my head out the window and my jaw on the ground. I was speechless, and I just sat there frozen for a few more seconds until A and T came screaming by in the Cavalier. A was halfway out the passenger window when they passed me.
“FUCKING GO”
As soon as A yelled that to me, I jolted back to reality and the situation we were in became fully clear to me. We had trespassed onto a still active runway, and a landing aircraft, with the tall trees obscuring their approach, hadn’t seen us until they were directly on top of us. We needed to leave as quickly as our cars would take us.
I turned the key to start my car back up. It didn’t start. This wasn’t uncommon for the Sentra, but saying it was the worst possible time to not start is a gross understatement. Two more tries and it mercifully groaned to life. Milliseconds later I would drop the clutch and be heading south towards the entrance to the airport. This time around, mechanical sympathy was not on either of our minds as we banged and crashed along the bumpy asphalt. We made it to the driveway back to the main road and hung a left back towards our homes. The Cessna, which had pulled up at the last second, did a 270-degree right turn at the end of the runway, and as we pulled out was directly overhead. Was he following us? That was all I could think as we continued east. Perhaps coincidentally we saw no fewer than 3 cops heading the way of the airport on our way back. It was at this point I had a sigh of relief that we had two of the least conspicuous looking cars known to man. A made it back to his house and I made it back to mine, where I parked in the garage and closed the door. I didn’t take it out for days afterwards.
I’ve told this
story to very few people since it happened years ago, obviously
because of how recklessly illegal it was, but equally so because I
was ashamed of myself. My first clue should’ve been that there were
actual, you know…
airplanes
there, and even if I had never
seen one take off or land, those planes still had to be able to leave
at some point if it was truly closed. I could’ve legitimately died
that day, and worst still, I could’ve taken an innocent pilot who
was just enjoying a clear summer evening with me. I know that pilot
isn’t reading our goofy little doomed blog here, but I still want
to apologize with my deepest sincerity. I mark that event as the day
in which my teenage stupidity left me, at least when I was behind the
wheel of a motorized vehicle. And it should absolutely go without
saying after reading this, but do not EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES go
onto a runway in anything other than an airplane that has clearance
to be there. It’s stupidly dangerous, irresponsible, and frankly
not even remotely fun. But extending that further, I know a lot of
people on here have fun cars and bikes, and they like to enjoy them
in perhaps less-than-legal ways. Please just don’t endanger other
people while you’re doing it.
Many of the pictures
accompanying this story are being posted online for the first time
ever. And that video A was shooting before rushing to his car to
leave? It still exists in the depths of my computer’s hard drive.
My Sentra sounds average at best, I didn’t go particularly fast,
and the whole thing is embarrassingly lame overall. In the final half
second however, as I let off the throttle and drift out of view, you
can begin to hear it: the distant drone of an approaching Cessna
Caravan. And for that reason, I can never bring myself to post it
online.
Chariotoflove
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 13:49 |
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That was YOU?! Dammit, I almost landed my plane on you!
JK, of course. In the annals of the young, that’s not the dumbest story that’s ever been told. It is interesting though. Don’t be too ashamed.
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TheJWT
> Chariotoflove
11/11/2020 at 13:50 |
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Oh did I say me? I meant my friend...
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 13:53 |
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Holy crap!!
Kiltedpadre
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 14:10 |
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I used to work at a small GA airport. One of the biggest issues we had was that deer would go out and just stand on the runway. The coyotes were smart enough to stay off the runway, but the deer apparently thought that made it a great way to get away from them and be “safe”. The only way to get rid of them was to take the CJ-5 we used as a tug out and drive straight for them and chase them off. The airport didn’t have a tower but during business hours at least there was a radio in the office where someone could warn incoming aircraft that there were deer on the runway and an employee was going to be driving on the runway to chase them off. After hours if you were there to meet a freight or charter plane coming in? Well then you just had to get on the radio and broadcast a warning before you went out and hope anyone coming towards you was already on that frequency to hear you. Thankfully visibility was good, but I did get buzzed more than once by a plane that was on a different channel when I broadcast what was happening. As if incoming aircraft weren’t scary enough the Jeep didn’t have a windshield, and I always had nightmares of having a deer not move when I drove at it and ending out sliding along the hood and hitting me in the head.
I took a couple cars out on the runway after hours too. One was a Jaguar XK-R where the owner of one of the business jets slid me $50 before leaving for a business trip and asked if I could wash the car while he was gone. After I said I could he suggested I air dry it for about 5200’ after I was done.
Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 14:12 |
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Wow, that is crazy! Admittedly you said the airport appeared to be abandoned and there were no barriers against trespassing. But the whole situation sounds incredibly sketchy.
I probably would have tried to drive off the runway into the grass instead of following the Prometheus school of running away from things but you don’t have time to think rationally at that point. Obviously the statute of limitations has expired on your reckless trespass but I too would be hesitant to post this online.
I also must say, those photos look really good for a time when a cheap Cavalier might look that nice. Around what year was this?
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TheJWT
> Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
11/11/2020 at 14:23 |
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It was 7 years ago, crazy how time flies. I remember wanting to post this on Oppo as soon as it happened but telling myself to wait . The Cavalier was weirdly clean save for a bit of rust underneath
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TheJWT
> Kiltedpadre
11/11/2020 at 14:24 |
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I’m hoping that runway was in better shape than this one, for the sake of the Jag...
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Kiltedpadre
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 14:35 |
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Yes, this airport was a very busy airport for GA and corporate flights and was maintained by a county staff.
Taylor Martin
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 14:56 |
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Dude, that’s a hell of a story. I’ve always wanted access to a nice runway too, but I guess rule number one would be to make sure it’s completely abandoned.
I have an uncle who’s a pilot and he lives in a neighborhood with a grass airstrip out his back door (everyone there is a commercial pilot or ex-air force or something). It’s a lot of fun seeing the planes and getting up in the air, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous you grew up with all that.
MM54
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 15:00 |
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Good story, and a great lesson learned.
Now, I’ll be right back after I get my buddy with a pilot’s license and knowledge of the local small airports to ID the location ;)
(Not really)
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TheJWT
> MM54
11/11/2020 at 15:12 |
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You’re near Cleveland, aren’t you? There’s not too many around here to choose from; it’s on the (far) west side
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Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 15:23 |
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I would have thought that it would have been longer. Cavaliers usually didn’t look that nice after even 5 years. That’s not a story you’re likely to forget anytime soon.
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MM54
> TheJWT
11/11/2020 at 16:56 |
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Near-ish
CaptDale - is secretly British
> TheJWT
11/12/2020 at 01:29 |
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That is a fun and crazy story. Thanks for sharing your misspent youth with us.