Pilot goofs and lands on dragstrip instead of airport runway in Tulsa

[Shan]

http://www.aero-news.net/news/genav.cfm?ContentBlockID=22be6fc8-adf8-493b-9dab-7ff9704242aa&Dynamic=1

A 600 horsepower alcohol-fueled fire-breathing funny-car dragster??? WTF is that?

 

[Mooseman]

lol That is brilliant soon we will be seeing a new class , Drag Planes . lol You have to joke about thing's like this.

 

[jpee]

I remember many years ago in the 60s racers would fly into the track & land on the strip in their private plane... Not sure if it was Englishtown or some other Northeast track...

 

[Joker]

That Is Funny, 600 Hp Alcohol Fire Breathing Funny Car Dragsters!!!

 

[Toejam]

Pilot lands on Dragstrip by mistake!

I heard this on our local radio station. A retired Pilot mistakenly landed on the Tulsa dragstrip thinking it was the airport! This supposedly happened while a race was taking place! Love to see some pics of that one!

 

[Slik]

Yeah, that had to be crazy!

Joe, they're talking about this too on another thread that's been moved over, and I believe there is a link to the story there too! Here's the link (if you haven't already seen it) http://www.nitromater.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3199

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Knoxville's airport has the 119th Air Refueling Group on the other side of the property, with both using the same runways. I used to go to the military side weekly on business and occasionally a commercial pilot would goof and exit to the "wrong" side. I saw it happen once and there were quite a few MPs surrounding the plane with rifles in hand in no time. I'm sure that more than one passenger had "WTF?" going through their minds.

 

[Bullet]

That Is Funny, 600 Hp Alcohol Fire Breathing Funny Car Dragsters!!!

600 HP????

It must have dropped 7 cylinders!!

 

[Mike Glick]

That used to happen at York U.S. 30 all the time, only it wasn't a mistake

 

[.]

That happened at Indy in 2002 during the Div. event also.

When we were pulling into the north pit gate on Wednesday afternoon, I noticed a small airplane at the end of the drag strip. I even said to my buddy… “Hey Russ, look there’s an airplane over there” I later found out after reading NHRA’s web site that a small plane mistook the drag strip for the nearby airport. We joked about it all weekend…. Yeah, most runways have bleachers along side of them so I can understand why the pilot would think it’s an airport. How about the bridge that goes over the track (at Indy) before the starting line…. I think most airports have bridges over the runway’s right?? Or, what about the “control tower” only about 4 feet from the edge of the track or… um ah… I mean, runway!!! Not to mention the circle track next to the drag strip…. How many airports have a circle track 100 feet from the runway???

The article on NHRA’s website said the plane landed on Tuesday which was a test day at the track. It started to drizzle so the cars weren’t running when the plane landed. They did let the plane take off on Monday after the race was finished.


How can pilots land on drag strips “accidentally”? Are they flying with their eyes closed? I can understand landing on a drag strip in an emergency but not by accident.


Disclaimer…
I’m not a pilot but I did stay at a Holliday Inn last night!!!

 

[FalconRacer]

Borrowed off of the Tulsa Raceway Park MySpace page.

Hey everybody, just thought I would share a cool picture with you. Tulsa Raceway Park had a small aircraft land on the dragstrip during a big event weekend this past weekend, October 28th. The pilot got the plane stopped about the 1/8th mile and was not hurt at all. Luckily, no cars were going down the track at the time.

We had a CDRA Team Bracket Finals and had over 320 cars racing for approximately 8 teams across the area. The track was packed all weekend and this definitely was one of the oddest things I've personally ever seen. I even told the FAA guy who called me that we were going to send the government a bill for track rental fees. He laughed, so who knew the FAA has a sense of humor. lol

Enjoy! Check out the slideshow at http://www.myspace.com/tulsaracewaypark for other pics of this.

Ginger

 

[FalconRacer]

Here's a little video information.
http://kotv.com/e-clips/?id=3807

 

[Rajunz]

No wonder, I just pulled it up on Google Earth......................

 

[FalconRacer]

Yeah TRP lines up good with the Airports East-West runway. We watched planes take off an land all weekend. Apparently the Airport was doing some kind of maintainence on the North-South runway they predominantly use.

 

[Johnny Mopar]

Here's a great airport / drag strip story. Back in the early 80's, our local track (Mid-America Raceways in Wentzville, MO) was closed, and the operator of the closed track sold his timing equipment to a couple of dudes from here at the Lake of the Ozarks. They rented the airport in Windsor, MO (just south of Sedalia, MO) and held 1/8 mile programs on Sundays. We were all cautioned that the airport was NOT closed during the racing, and that we would have to clear the track if a plane needed to take off or land. The occasion that comes to mind was a small plane landing, then parking track side. The two guys got out a couple of lawn chairs and sat under the wings for shade and watched the show. When they decided to leave, they shut down the racing, cleared the narrow strip of cars and the plane took off! I'll never forget that day...

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Yeah, we all know how dragstrips used to have a habit of being old runways. An airport outgrows it's real estate, so it's the perfect property for a dragstrip when it moves on.

The one in my hometown (Maryville Dragstrip/Maryville, TN) is the other way around. They've made it into a flying community. Watching for planes, you can drive off the road and right onto the former track. As you go down the runway there's driveways connecting. If garage doors are open, you'll often see a plane sitting inside with a car under each wing. They have front and rear garage doors with wrap around driveways. Take the plane or car out of the same garage.

Getting a small plane someday is definitely high on my list of personal goals. I'm often looking at the terrain around here and wishing I could spend weekend evenings just taking it in from above.

 

[Larry]

Oh you would be surprised how often it happens!
Looking down on objects you loose some identification.
I think it was about 1996 or so a Continental Airlines jet containing among others a passenger named Larry landed at a Navy practice field near the Corpus Christi Airport called Cabaness Field. That practice field also serves as the local drag strip . Yep we were loaded up in buses and taken to the airport and the airplane and crew remained at Cabaness for debreifing!
I don't fly around as much anymore but I have had my share of unintended thrills over the years, like landing in shut out fog [ trying ] in a puddle jumper in Austin and looking up at power lines ,blown tires and inoperable reverse thruster [ on one side ].

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Plane Landing on Road - Google Video

 

[yoda]

That used to happen at York U.S. 30 all the time, only it wasn't a mistake

As I recall, it also used to happen at the old Tucson Dragway, also not being a mistake- which is one of the reasons the track isn't with us anymore!!