VAN BUREN — A seasoned pilot from Van Buren County avoided disaster Monday when he landed his disabled plane on a sparsely traveled stretch of Arkansas 59 in Crawford County.
Eric Archer of Clinton was flying the Beechcraft Bonanza at about 2,000 feet and approaching the Fort Smith Regional Airport about 9 a.m. when he said he lost power in the 1950s vintage airplane he co-owns with another man.
He and his passenger, whom he wouldn’t identify, took off from Clinton on Monday morning for the 130-mile flight to Fort Smith to meet someone for lunch.
Until about 9 a.m., it was a routine flight for Archer, who said he has 40 years of experience flying, having first learned to fly in the U.S. Air Force.
He said he remained calm when the engine went dead.
“It wouldn’t do me much good to get excited,” he said.
He spotted Arkansas 59 near the Arkansas River in Crawford County between Van Buren and Barling. He pointed toward a long straight section of the highway about four miles northeast of the airport that had no power lines and little traffic.
As the plane descended, Archer said, he saw just one truck in his path. The truck driver apparently saw the plane, too, and pulled the truck out of the way as the plane touched down and coasted to a stop.
Archer and his passenger rolled the plane off the road and called for help. Al Hosier, who runs an avionics business at the airport, and others from the airport’s fixed base operator, Tac Air, showed up. They inspected the plane and put in a new battery.
Hosier and Archer said they believed a frozen carburetor caused the engine to shut down. Hosier said a frozen carburetor would stop the flow of fuel to the engine but would thaw quickly once the plane was on the ground.
The problem isn’t common, because most small planes have carburetor heaters to prevent freezing, Hosier said. He speculated Archer might not have turned on the heater.
National Weather Service data showed it was 38 degrees in Fort Smith at 9 a.m. Monday.
With the new battery installed and several minutes of ground-level warmth to thaw the carburetor, the plane’s engine started right up.
Arkansas State Police troopers blocked traffic briefly to give the Beechcraft the 1,000 feet needed to get airborne.
The plane took off about noon and made the short hop to the Fort Smith airport, where Hosier drove Archer and his passenger to lunch.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 11/13/2012