Following an emergency landing Sunday evening in a field along Hwy. 53 East in Marble Hill, one local pilot said he is now trying to figure out exactly what went wrong with his homemade aircraft.
Jimmy Fouts left the Pickens County airport around 7 p.m. Sunday evening in his lightweight Loehle plane only to find it sputtering out on him 30 minutes later.
“I was heading over around Fitts Road going to buzz around over some friends’ places over there and I had turned around and started back to Jasper and the little old engine started sputtering with me,” Fouts said. “It wasn’t a scary landing. This is only the second time the little old thing put me down. I’m getting used to all the pastures in the county.”
The plane, which Fouts purchased from an estate sale and put together himself, is a very lightweight craft made out of old wood.
“It’s real light. If there’s much wind blowing you have to stay on the ground,” he said.
Fouts said once he was on the ground he called a couple of friends who came sporting toolboxes and helped him take the plane apart and haul it back to the hanger.
“Now I’m in the process of trying to find out what was wrong and then try it again,” he said.
Fouts is no stranger to flying lightweight aircraft. He also owns one of the rainbow-colored parachutes seen flying over the county from time to time.
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