According to the article posted below, the pilot reported that he was at
7000 feet when the engine stopped and that "he couldn't possibly make it to
the nearest airport, Mount Comfort, which was about seven miles away". The
elevation of Mount Comfort is 811 ft. with a 3,850 ft. x 100 ft. runway.

Not to belittle his commendable job of putting the plane down safely, nor to
assume that I could do the same as easily, but it would seem to me that 7
miles from 7000 ft. would be within a reasonable gliding distance for most
GA aircraft, and to say that "he couldn't possibly make it" there doesn't
sound right to me. Even factoring in a delay to sort things out and make
some decisions and therefore starting a decent from 6000 ft. direct to an
airport 7 miles away would still seem more plausible to me than trying to
land on a highway during the day.

Anyone agree or disagree?

Art Varrassi
CP-ASEL

"Mike Proctor" wrote in message
t...
Carburetor ice? From the picture, it looks as if there was a fair
amount
of water vapor/fog in the air. IIRC, the temperature in that area was
ideal for carb ice formation.


Yep, according to this article:

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/1...3/detail.html#