Pilot Jim Luper, left, stands by his Cessna 172 Skyhawk on Saturday after it was towed off the 11th hole of the Bryden Canyon Public Golf Course in Lewiston. Luper safely landed the single-engine plane on the green this morning after running out of gas due to a faulty fuel gauge.
Keith White, left to right, Marshall Evans and Dan Garrison play through as Jim Luper’s Cessna 172 Skyhawk plane is towed off the 11th hole Saturday at Bryden Canyon Public Golf Course in Lewiston. Luper safely landed the single-engine plane on the green this morning after running out of gas due to a faulty fuel gauge.
Pilot Jim Luper, left, stands by his Cessna 172 Skyhawk on Saturday after it was towed off the 11th hole of the Bryden Canyon Public Golf Course in Lewiston. Luper safely landed the single-engine plane on the green this morning after running out of gas due to a faulty fuel gauge.
Austin Johnson/Tribune
Keith White, left to right, Marshall Evans and Dan Garrison play through as Jim Luper’s Cessna 172 Skyhawk plane is towed off the 11th hole Saturday at Bryden Canyon Public Golf Course in Lewiston. Luper safely landed the single-engine plane on the green this morning after running out of gas due to a faulty fuel gauge.
Two men walked away from an emergency landing at about 11:15 a.m. Saturday at Bryden Canyon Golf Course after the aircraft they were flying lost power when it was taking off from the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.
The pilot, JR Luper, is a Lewiston flight instructor who was conducting a lesson in the area for a student, said Lewiston Airport Director Mike Isaacs at the scene.
The student was Grangeville resident Jeff Uhlenkott, 52, who works in product development at Hilco Technologies in Nezperce.
“(Luper) tried initially to land back on the (airport) and knew he wouldn’t have the altitude, so he ended up picking the field here at the golf course,” Isaacs said. “... He wasn’t high enough to turn back.”
The only damage to the aircraft or property happened when a wing tip of the single-engine Cessna 172 hit a tree limb, he said.
“They did a great job,” Isaacs said. “We’re just very fortunate no one was injured. (Luper) is a very skilled pilot with lots of flight time. That probably attributed to the relatively uneventful emergency landing.”
Luper, an owner of Luper Automotive in Lewiston before his retirement, and Uhlenkott were met by emergency crews from the Lewiston Fire Department, Lewiston Police Department and the airport.
“You train for it all the time,” said Luper, who began flying in the 1970s and has been an instructor for a decade. “You train students that if something does go wrong, there’s tools to deal with it.”
The accident happened near the end of a hourlong lesson to practice maneuvers such as taking off and landing, Uhlenkott said.
The aircraft began to sputter at about 400 feet and Luper took over the controls, Uhlenkott said.
“(Luper) stayed really, really calm,” Uhlenkott said. “He put the plane down. I didn’t even get excited because he was so calm. … I never felt like I was in that much danger.”
As long as a plane is available, Uhlenkott said, he’s ready to continue pilot lessons with Luper any time.
“I literally trust the man with my life,” Uhlenkott said.
So far Uhlenkott has completed between eight to 10 sessions.
“I just always wanted to (learn to fly),” Uhlenkott said. “It looked like a good time and it is.”
The fairway where the plane landed was at the golf course’s 11th hole, which was closed for about one hour, said Thomas Flowers, an employee of the golf course’s pro shop.
O’Connor Road that runs between the golf course and airport was also closed briefly Saturday while the aircraft was returned to the airport on a trailer after, Isaacs said, it was cleared to be removed by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Matt Mosman, owner of Frontier Aviation, a business at the Lewiston airport, said the plane belongs to him.
Like Isaacs and Uhlenkott, he had praise for Luper.
“In my mind, it could have been a whole lot worse if (Luper) hadn’t been behind the yoke of that aircraft,” Mosman said. “I don’t know what would have happened.”
The NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the accident, according to a news release from the airport.
