Happy Landing

The four-place Cessna 180 descended toward a landing at Wyoming's Minuteman Missile Site B6. Down and down it went, faster and faster. Too fast. One of the passengers leaned toward veteran Pilot Edgar Van Keuren. The pilot's eyes were open--but sightless. He was dead of a stroke.

At that instant. Passenger Lester Peterson, seated beside Van Keuren, grabbed for the control wheel and yanked back. The aircraft rose again--after plunging to within three feet of the ground. It climbed to 8,000 ft. But the passengers--Peterson, Lester Laun, 34, and John Pawlack, 32--were still in a fearful situation. All three were engineers with the American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel, on an inspection trip of the missile site, which their company is building. And none had ever flown a plane.

Peterson managed to circle the plane and head it back toward Cheyenne. Alerted by radio message. Air Force crash trucks raced to emergency stations along the runway. Into the control tower rushed Lou Domenico, 41, an ex-Air Force flight instructor and owner of Cheyenne's Sky Harbor Air Service. He was about to give the most important flying lesson of his career, a life-or-death radio exchange with the Cessna. Excerpts:

Peterson: Say, Cheyenne tower. I think we'll make a pass over the airfield, just to get the feel of this damned thing. You had better tell us what to do with this thing. What kind of speed we ought to come in on and so on.

Tower: Descend to about 7,000 feet. Stay well east of the field so you can line up with the east-west runway.

Peterson: You mean this big orange runway right under me now?

Domenico (taking over): Affirmative. Make a turn to your right and descend. Get out about five miles from the end of the runway you are flying parallel to right now. and line up with it and be at 7,000 feet. We'll bring you in.

Peterson (minutes later): I think we are about five miles out now. We are going to start making our approach . . . It's hard to operate. If we pull this lever here, would it slow up the plane?

Domenico: Disregard. Do not touch anything in the airplane until you are instructed to do so. You will start a gradual descent by applying forward pressure on your stick. Leave your power and your airspeed remain the same in the descent. Just come on in at no [m.p.h.] and plan your descent so that you aim right for the end of the runway without building up excess speed.

Pawlack (taking over the radio for Peterson): Do you mean the runway nearest us?

Domenico: That is the runway you are heading right towards. All right, ease back on your throttle just a little bit.

Pawlack: What about the flaps?

Domenico: No flaps. No flaps. Just pull back on your throttle, and when you get down close to the runway, pull the throttle all the way off and fly level to the runway. Just ease back on the stick, get down real close. Take all your power off. Now throttle clear back. When it gets on the ground, just let it roll. Don't try to guide it except straight. If it tries--ease it back. Just hold the stick clear back. That's good. Stay right there--you're doing fine.

Okay.

Pawlack: Nothing to it!

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