Author |
Message |
Razz
| Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2012 - 11:15 am: |
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Was driving home last night on Hwy 402 in Ontario a 4 lane divided Hwy when I heard a plane engine .I looked to the right and there was a small plane angling towards the Hwy about 100 ft up. At first I thought he was taking off from the field but then he lined up with the road and started to land.It was dark and he was out of sight before he touched down.I tried to keep up but couldn,t being carefull not to go too fast and not being able to stop in time if he stopped.I went for what seemed like forever and still no sign.I was beginning to think he took off again or was running down the Hwy to find an exit as there was not much of a shoulder.All this time he had no lights at all.During this I was tapping the brakes to warn anybody coming from behind when somebody started to pass me .I stuck my arm out in their lane and they still kept going.I tried to stay with them thinking two sets of lights would help find the plane.Again we went for a while when suddenly the car veered drastically to the right and kept going .I saw the plane at the last minute stopped in the left lane and got around him and pulled to the left where he could block me hopefully from traffic.I looked back and everything looked intact so I was trying to figure out how to get turned around safely and get some lights on him keeping in mind this stretch of Hwy has a bad history of people running into stopped vehicles .I'd be lying if I didn't say I was scared s---less.Just then I heard the engine rev up and when I looked back there was a guy standing next to the plane waving for me to go.I figured he'd stopped when the car came and now wanted to continue to a safe place.I gave her hell and got as far up the road as I could trying to get out of his way.The car was pulled over about a mile up and by now I could see about six emergency vehicles coming on the opposite side of the road.By this time there was nothing I could do so I continued home and left a msg on the non urgent police line with my name and #. I heard today sombeody clipped his wing but nobody was hurt.Apparently the pilot had radiod the police he had no lights or instruments and was running low on fuel.In retrospect I wish I would have ignored him telling me to move on and parked the bike in front of him with the lights facing traffic , but nobody got hurt .Sorry about the long winded rant. (Message edited by Razz on July 14, 2012) |
Tootal
| Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2012 - 12:56 pm: |
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Wow! It's too bad you couldn't talk to him. Being a Uly rider you could have showed him how to fix is grounding problem!! |
Eulysses
| Posted on Monday, July 16, 2012 - 01:15 am: |
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You think he would have accepted grounding advice from someone with a headlight out? Don't think so. That was funny Tootal. It is hard to have wisdom in emergency situations like that. As vulnerable as a biker is and with lights that are minimal and not understood by car drivers...getting away from there was probably right. |
Fltwistygirl
| Posted on Monday, July 16, 2012 - 01:33 am: |
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Wow, Razz, good thing u are on an adventure bike!!! I've heard some coaches say look ahead, behind, left, right, above for planes and below for submarines. Maybe overkill overall but true in some instances like yours! Ride safe! B. |
Razz
| Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 05:44 pm: |
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A lady who was in the car that passed me was interviewed on the radio.Her husband was driving and she told him I was shooting at them and to speed up.Us poor bikers cant get a break.It must be the Harley DNA in our bikes that exudes badness. |
Natexlh1000
| Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 06:01 pm: |
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OMG. shooting?! really? wow. What a dip**it. |
Froggy
| Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 06:06 pm: |
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They must of mistaken you for an American. |
Pons
| Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 07:08 pm: |
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RAZZ, if you don't mind I posted your story on MTF FORUM. Someone started a thread about crazy stuff in the road. I'm pretty sure this tops anything most M/C have encountered............ |
Razz
| Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 10:07 pm: |
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Go for it Pons.Hopefully it makes people think about what they would do in an emergency.Although nothing I did had any effect on the outcome,I could easily have made things much worse.I tried to provide light for the landing but my lights just barely reached his tail at landing and then he disappeared.In news reports the pilot said he landed in total darkness and I don't think he knew I was maybe 1/8 of a mile behind.I figure he was doing about 80 mph and I could easily have kept up,but I didn't know how fast he would stop or crash.I was tempted to chase the vehicle that passed me but that could have made things much worse by making him go faster.One thing I am going to do is get an emergency flashing light to put in the topbox. |
Pons
| Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 10:19 pm: |
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Nice work. People from all over the world enjoy http://www.mctourer.com/ great group of people like here that enjoy long rides on any bike |