Finally, after many drugs and lots of rest...I got the ok from the doctor to continue on my adventure. I could not wait to get back in the cockpit and get the heck out here...however...things would not go as planned on this leg of the trip...
My destination for this leg was Brownsville Texas. The farthest southern tip of Texas.
Flight details for this leg...
I had my Baron fueled up and pulled up to the gate for me. After my pre-flight check was complete, I jumped in and started the engines...
If you have never taxiied out to runway 33 at El Paso Int, you should because I felt like I was half way to Brownsville by the time I got the runway...Its that far!
But after getting clearance...I was off...
After getting to cruising altitude of 10,000 AGL...I put the autopilot on and reached for my thermos of coffee...then suddenly, I look forward and this huge wall of white was right in front of me....I checked my weather radar and this was not that big of cloud but it was going to be rough going through it...
Everything went ok for the first few minutes when suddenly......BANG! ! !
Something let go in the left engine and the plane started to bank hard...
After turning off the emergency signal, I noticed that engine 1 had no oil pressure at all and needed to be shut down...
I quickly checked my GPS and found that there were no airports within almost 100 miles from me...Except for a private field of a rancher called "Maravillas Gap Ranch" which was directly beneath me...
Good enough! I started my decent through the clouds and hoped that this was not socked right to the ground. I kept my eye on the Radar Altitude and hoped there were no big hills in my way! !
Finally, I broke through the clouds with only about 1000 feet of clearance.
I spotted the runway and tried to keep her level...thanks to the lovely storm that was overhead...I had to keep power on the right engine so that I could fight the cross wind. (no luxury of alternate runways here!)
With a relatively minor bump...I managed to get her down in one piece....
I was able to cost it off the runway. As soon as I came to stop, however, the engine started smoking so I knew something was wrong...I opened the door and jumped out right away!
I then noticed the rancher racing over in his pickup....
So hopefully the damage is not going to be too much...the rancher said there is a town nearby that I should be able to get a mechanic to take a look and order any parts that I need...and he graciously offered for me to stay at his ranch!
Hopefully....It will not take long....
Here is the map to the crash site in case anyone wants to come visit me at the Ranch or bring me some parts! ;D
Thanks for watching! The quality of these pics will be alot less due the fact that I had to use MS Photo Editor....
Leg 1 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=disp%20lay;num=1079349700
Leg 2 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1079960311
Leg 3 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1080568002
Leg 4 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1081263677
Leg 5 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1082034131
Leg 6 - http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=screen;action=display;num=1082383988
