In short, there is no reason to think Zarif’s oral history is anything but accurate. He has maintained a close relationship with Kerry since rolling him on the Iran nuclear deal. The oral history is damaging to Zarif both at home and abroad. If you are going to claim this was a clever ruse to further discredit John Kerry, you have to answer two questions: a) why bother? and b) why Zarif made himself and Iran look bad in the process. Everything we know about Kerry since he flung someone else’s medals over a fence in front of the US Capitol in 1971 screams, “THIS IS TRUE!!”

In a sane party or in a sane “administration,” passing on classified information to a US adversary like you were giving away Lebron James trading cards would get you shown the door if not actually prosecuted. But we have neither. We are governed by a party where the chairman of the subcommittee overseeing the CIA was boinking a Chinese spy, and when the relationship was disclosed to the Democrat leadership, nothing was done, (read While Eric Swalwell Was Sleeping With a Chinese Spy Adam Schiff Put Him in Charge of CIA Oversight). We have as our selected president a man who is deeply compromised by the Chinese and by the Russians. In that environment, Kerry’s giving aid and comfort to Zarif is more properly viewed as a job application for a higher position. //

Genna
3 hours ago
Why should we believe the NYT lied about John Kerry when John Kerry believed every word the NYT wrote about Donald Trump? //

monster
3 hours ago
Streiff, without any hyperbole, how is what you have described truly not legally traitorous activity?

streiff monster
2 hours ago
we aren't at war with Iran...that is something the Constitution sets as a prerequisite for treason. That's why I say Espionage Act

This letter was sent to the Judiciary Committee while Congress is considering the highly controversial H.R.1 – ”For the People Act of 2021.” Below is an excerpt from that letter:

Sadly, the public discourse about Georgia’s new voting reforms has not been civil, fair, nor honest. Politically motivated attacks against the new law have generated much heat, but little light. We do not challenge the goodwill of the vast majority of the participants in this needlessly overwrought drama playing out. But we take great issue with the manner in which opponents of these reforms have operated. It has become clear that even well-intentioned critics of the law simply have no idea what the law is. It is clear they have no idea how favorably Georgia’s new law compares with most other states – including President Biden’s home state of Delaware. And it is clear they have no idea that a majority of Black voters across the country support the key provision under attack by critics – the simple requirement that voters be able to identify themselves when voting.

This is the same simple requirement needed to pick up baseball tickets or board a plane – activities hardly as important as voting. Instead, critics of the law have substituted passion for reason, hysteria for judgment. They have launched a despicable smear campaign against supporters of the law and economic reprisals against the state of Georgia – punishing the very people they claim to champion. They have tarred with the brush of racism people whose only sin is a desire for confidence in our elections. It’s time to end these campaigns of misinformation, division, and hate. People of goodwill must find ways to expand voter access for all Americans, strengthen the security and integrity of our election process, and do so in a way that sees civil, respectful discourse between those who disagree.

While Georgia’s new voting reforms aren’t really controversial at all — except to people who want to cheat — H.R. 1 on the other hand institutionalizes cheating that, of course, favors the Democrats. Critics say Georgia’s new law disenfranchises Black voters by asking them for a photo ID to identify themselves.

H.R.1 bans voter ID laws. Instead, all a voter will have to do is give a sworn statement that they are who they say they are at the polls. It also bars states from checking with other states for duplicate registrations within six months of an election. It bars removing former voters from the rolls for failure to vote or to respond to mailings. //

The most egregious part of H.R.1 is the provision that strips state legislatures from drawing their own congressional districts. Instead, “independent ” commissions will draw district boundary lines. Mid-decade readjustments are banned under H.R.1. In order to reduce representation in rural and traditionally Republican areas, prison inmates are counted as residents of their last known address — even if they are serving a life sentence!

Georgia’s new voting reform laws are not discriminatory and will ensure integrity in Georgia’s elections. H.R. 1, on the other hand, will do the exact opposite in Georgia and the other 49 states. We must not get distracted by the Democrats’ head fakes in Georgia while they maneuver the federal takeover of our election system. We must stay vocal and diligent because our country’s future depends on it.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, now President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, briefed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on hundreds of Israel’s covert attacks on Iranian interests in Syria, according to leaked audio reported by The New York Times on Sunday. This revelation echoes reports that Obama officials saved the life of terrorist and Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani by notifying Iran about an Israeli plot to assassinate him in 2015.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the key First Amendment case Americans for Prosperity v. Rodriguez, which centers on the State of California’s requirement that nonprofit organizations disclose their donor information to the state. Back in 2015, then-Attorney General Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) demanded that two conservative nonprofits, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), hand over their donor lists. This demand threatened to reveal the identities of donors, potentially subjecting them to threats and harassment. //

“The justices appreciated very well that membership and donations to an organization are protected by a right to privacy in association, not just a right to associate,” Kathleen Sullivan, legal counsel for Americans for Prosperity Foundation, said on a press call after the oral arguments on Monday.

She noted that the justices cited many friend-of-the-court briefs written by ideological opponents of AFP and TMLC that nonetheless support these conservative organizations’ rights to donor anonymity. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) proved particularly noteworthy in this regard.

Many of the justices cited the key legal precedent NAACP v. Alabama (1958), in which the Supreme Court struck down Alabama’s order that the NAACP hand over a list of its members. Alabama issued this order during the era of segregation when the Ku Klux Klan held tremendous power in the state. The Court rightly upheld the NAACP’s organizational privacy.

“In particular, the justices seem to understand that what is not controversial today may be controversial tomorrow,” and that views that are now commonly-held were controversial in the past, Sullivan noted. //

Justice Clarence Thomas “explained that the government used confidential census data information to locate Japanese citizens for internment,” Bursch noted. “Sotomayor noted that donors may not have faith in California” because the state had leaked the records of more than 1,700 donors. //

When California’s lawyers argued that most non-profits would not object to providing donor lists, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, “That’s not how the First Amendment works.” She noted that speech zones on college campuses may violate the First Amendment even if most students support speech zones.

The Washington Post positively gushed over Trump’s pick for the official portrait.

His portrait of Trump has both artistic and historic merit, Ureña said. “I like the composition of the photograph,” she said of Dukovic’s image. “It is an angle we don’t often see. You get a little bit of the other side and what’s behind the desk.”

The photograph’s historical details include flags along the wall representing the five branches of the armed forces, a portrait of Andrew Jackson and one of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis that the museum loaned to the White House. These reflect Trump’s interests and influences, Ureña said. The photograph was taken the day before Trump officially announced he would seek reelection, adding to its historical value, Ureña said.

“We want to not only depict the individual,” she said, “but also bring as much history as much context as possible.”

Someone should check on the staff writers to see if they’re okay and not under duress of any kind. We are just not used to this.

This isn’t some anonymous claim made up by a political enemy and because of that, Kerry doesn’t get to play both sides of the fence on this. Given that, let’s assume Zarif is lying and that Kerry never actually shared intelligence with him.

If that’s true, then Kerry has just backed himself into a corner. He can’t simultaneously say not to believe Zarif, the supposed “moderate” in Iran, while at the same time stumping for a return of the Iran deal and lauding his previous work on that front. That extends to the Biden administration as well because they have chosen to employ Kerry as some kind of climate czar. If they are going to not fire Kerry and instead buy his denials here, then they are now in the position of enforcing the assertion that Iran is led by liars who can’t be trusted.

Do you know what you don’t do with liars who can’t be trusted? You don’t sign nuclear agreements with them. //

I see no reason to believe John Kerry on this front. In my view, Zarif had no incentive to lie in the leaked tapes as he was talking to someone he trusts. Further, we already know that Kerry was colluding with the Iranians during the Trump years, advising them on how to get around U.S. policy. It should surprise no one that he would share intelligence with Zarif.

For whatever reason, John Kerry has, time and again, chosen to basically operate as a foreign agent at the behest of the Iranians. Someone should probably figure out why sooner rather than later before something really dangerous happens.

RNC Research
@RNCResearch
Kamala Harris on Biden's border crisis: putting those in Central America "at the center of everything we do" //

I get she’s talking to the president of Guatemala and his team. But, excuse me, that’s wrong. The people of the United States should be “at the center” of everything she or the rest of the Biden regime does. The best interests of this country should be “at the center” of everything she does. That’s literally the Constitutional job. Isn’t that what she took an oath to do? But it’s as if they never remember that. Or don’t even think that to start with.

Reporter: “No, I think of tens of millions of people are concerned about H.R. 1 and budget reconciliation and going with a 50-vote threshold. I think that was a concern.”

Psaki: “I’m not sure the polling bears that out. But I will say that the President’s view is that bringing the country together is bringing the American people together. So, when I say he is — he is focused on re- — bringing — you know, bringing people together, bringing Democrats and Republicans together, he is not talking about solving bipartisanship in the — this ZIP Code here. //

The short version of her answer was that “bipartisanship” to the Biden administration has nothing to do with bringing both parties together in Washington, D.C. to get legislation hammered out and passed. It has to do with the White House’s perception that most people in America agree with their agenda. //

RNC Research
@RNCResearch
Biden's Press Secretary Jen Psaki claims when Biden promised bipartisanship he didn’t mean legislatively in DC //

Tim Graham
@TimJGraham
This definition of bipartisanship is stupid.

"We're going to be bipartisan by pleasing vaguely Republican suburbanites in liberal media polls, and skip meeting with Republican congressional leaders and pass everything without Republican votes." //

Biden’s version of “bipartisanship” is exactly the kind of phony “unity and healing” Republicans predicted it would be: Paying lip service to bringing both political parties and the country together under the guise of “moving America forward,” all while ramming through radical legislation without a single Republican vote. It was meaningless and empty rhetoric then, and Jen Psaki confirmed it with her response during yesterday’s briefing.

How does Price know when the conversation was or that it had “already been disclosed?” Does he know the date of the conversation and what was discussed? Why would Zarif be “astonished” if this information was already publicly available?

Moreover, classified information is still classified information even after media might report on it, and it’s not clear exactly what is alleged to have been discussed about the ops.

Meanwhile Kerry claims, not that the information was already out there, he claims he never had the conversation at all.

So which is it? Did he have the conversation that didn’t mean anything or didn’t he?

According to his own comments in 2019, Kerry said he met with Zarif in 2018 “three or four times” to discuss the nuclear deal and other issues.

As we’ve previously said, why was he meeting with the Iranians at all at that time, when he didn’t represent our government and was trying to save the nuclear deal, which was against the U.S. position at the time? What did he say in these admitted conversations and what were the “other issues?”

It isn’t just the revelations about Israel, that’s bad enough. But what he’s already essentially admitted to, the conversations about the nuclear deal, needs serious investigation and is an even bigger issue. He’s never been held to account for it and now he’s on the National Security Council as Biden’s “special envoy” on climate. Joe Biden needs to answer up on this, and the answer can’t just be more avoidance.

Meanwhile, and not a small point, Iranian surrogates were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq over the years and Iranian-backed militias have been attacking American targets in Iraq.

Final point? If Kerry isn’t telling the truth and Iran knows it or has audio tape, he’s now compromised.

the Supreme Court today agreed to hear the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Corlett, a major 2nd Amendment case that will address the question:

Whether the state’s denial of Petitioner’s applications for Concealed-Carry Licenses for Self-Defense violated the Second Amendment?

Interestingly, that is not the question as posed in the Petition. In the Petition the Court was asked to answer the following question:

Whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit ordinary lawabiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self-defense? //

the question as posed in the Petition asked for an interpretation of the breadth of the Second Amendment’s pre-emption of state regulation, whereas the question as reformulated by the Court focuses on what New York has done and whether that act violates the Second Amendment — a question that can be answered without sweeping away all other state-imposed limitations on gun ownership and possession.

The language chosen by the Court suggests a narrower analysis of the specific New York’s firearm permitting process, and seems to focus on the specific applications made by the Petitioners within the framework of the statutory limitations created by New York going back to a point in time prior to the adoption of the Second Amendment. //

Deciding the applicable “standard of review” — particularly if the Court decides that “strict scrutiny” is the proper standard — would then be a basis to send the case back to the Second Circuit without addressing the foundational issue of how broad are the protections afforded by the Second Amendment. It would also cause a likely “reset” of other cases recently decided or currently pending in other circuit courts. A decision establishing the “standard of review” would “rewrite the rules” in a meaningful fashion on how lower courts should evaluate state restrictions on gun ownership and possession. Such a “reset” of lower court cases would allow the Supreme Court to again put off resolving the more controversial issues about how far the Second Amendment should reach in prohibiting state regulation of firearms. //

DannyBhoyo13
4 hours ago
From what I gather, the Supreme Court narrowing the question under dispute give them another opportunity to punt on decision concerning, “shall not be infringed.” //

Romeg
4 hours ago edited
The Right of Self-Defense PRE-EXISTS the creation of ANY State since it is a Natural Right that is part and parcel of being a natural person while The State is an artifice, a creation of mankind whose 'just powers' derive from those who created The State. Having thus been created and granted such powers as it has and not having been granted, expressly, the right to LIMIT natural rights, The State, therefore, LACKS the power to grant unto itself the power to LIMIT the Natural Rights of those who created IT.

It never occurred to the Founders to apply the language of the Second Amendment to the states since, first off, The Constitution of The United States establishes the Federal Government and the Bill of Rights, which includes The Second Amendment thereto, LIMITS the powers of The Federal Government. But for the Natural Right of Self Defense which presupposes the right to Keep and Bear Arms, the American Revolution would have been lost before that first shot was fired on April 15, 1775 and NO STATES would exist as the consequence. They would be Provinces akin to other former elements of the United Kingdom.

If NO STATE can invade a woman's privacy for the sake of protecting the life of another human being then how, in G*d's Name, can it have the power to tell one of its citizens that unless you can demonstrate some special need, you don't have the right to arm yourself for your own protection?

The language is plainly on display in the Second Amendment to The Constitution of The United States: "A Well Regulated Militia Being Necessary to the Maintenance of a Free State*, The Right To Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed"

*Free State, in the context of this amendment, does NOT refer to any political subdivision. Rather it refers to the CONDITION of being Free, as in the language of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4: 10-14, to wit:

"10-But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length ye have revived your thought for me; wherein ye did indeed take thought, but ye lacked opportunity. 11-Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content. 12-I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound: in everything and in all things have I learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want. 13-I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me. 14-Howbeit ye did well that ye had fellowship with my affliction."

Now, leaked tapes of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif are exposing just how the terrorist nation responded to the killing. Further, it shows how much of an idiot our current president is. //

Mike Pompeo
@mikepompeo
Our Administration’s exquisite strike on Qasem Soleimani had a massive impact on Iran and the Middle East. You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask ⁦⁦@JZarif⁩. President Biden still thinks it was a mistake. #AmericaFirst #AbrahamAccords //

What the tapes reveal is an Iran where Zarif is a nobody, with Soleimani and the IRGC basically running the show, including regarding relations with Russia. //

In other words, the death of Soleimani was a massive blow to Iran’s ability to project strength to its allies and to continue terrorist attacks in places like Iraq. Joe Biden, being the idiot that he is, opposed the attack on Soleimani just as he opposed the attack on Osama Bin Laden. The one consistent in our foreign policy the last forty years has been Biden being continually wrong about it. //

The Jerusalem Post notes exactly how this will be spun, and I think they are dead on.

The leaked tapes lead to one of several conclusions. They seem to cater to a Western worldview that depicts Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani as “moderates” who are confronting the “hardliners” in the IRGC and Supreme Leader’s office. This leak appears timed to encourage this view as the US considers re-entering the Iran Deal. //

This is how Biden will try to pivot after the leaking of these tapes. They will claim that Soleimani was actually a detriment to peace, even though Biden opposed his killing and removal from power, and that it is now safer to make a new “deal” with Iran. Biden, in a laughable fashion, will actually try to use his own past idiocy as proof his current idiocy is acceptable.

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
@JosephWulfsohn
UPDATE: Gannett spox issued a statement:

"We regret the oversight in updating the Stacey Abrams column. As soon as we recognized there was no editor’s note, we added it to the page to reflect her changes. We have reviewed our procedures to ensure this does not occur again." //

What they did not answer, however, was the key question from Fox News on whether they had any regrets for “allowing revisions to Abrams’ op-ed instead of preserving it as it was originally written,” which pretty much tells you that they do not regret it.

That’s really the key issue here, and the fact that they didn’t address it speaks volumes about them. If Abrams wanted to update the piece, what the paper should have done was to have her write a new one with a new headline and everything. But they allowed her to make changes to the original piece after the MLB pulled the game that made it sound like she was even more opposed to boycotts than she originally sounded. //

The lies Abrams, President Biden, Sen. Raphael Warnock, and other Democrats told about the law laid the groundwork for boycotts to be announced and MLB to pull the game. Matters were made worse once Warnock’s staff admitted after the fact that his comments about the law were made based on an early version of the bill that did not make the final cut. Then Abrams revised her piece post-MLB announcement, and the USA Today didn’t even bother to point it out until they got called out nearly three weeks later.

With these rising prices, farmers are making real money for the first time in years, and most Americans want farmers to earn a fair living for their sweat and hard work. Grain prices affect the cost of beef, pork, turkeys, and chickens. It is simple economics: higher grain prices result in higher meat prices. What the US government should be doing is incentivizing crop production, not curtailing it. We should also be expanding US cattle and hog herds and turkey and chicken flocks in order to keep food prices stable while also exporting to meat-importing countries. Taking even marginal land out of agricultural production is a mistake. [Note: a lot of land previously considered to be “marginal” has been improved for productive cultivation over the years through diligent hard work.]

Finally, other grain exporting countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Australia will be enticed to plant more acres to meet world demand if the US sets aside additional acreage in CRP. Maybe that is one unspoken purpose behind the Hologram’s CRP push – another America Last policy. Good for foreign farmers; not so much for American farmers. And if the Hologram regime’s 30×30 Plan (and CRP) goal is to help “halt climate change” in response to the “climate crisis panic porn” being purveyed by CNN by taking US acreage out of production, how is that goal achieved if other countries merely make up the difference?

A group that exists to “reform LA jails” doesn’t need $600 a night hotel stays to “meet” about how they plan to do that.

But this shows the kind of grift that Black Lives Matter and other activist outfits are perpetrating on people. I certainly wouldn’t give money to these people, but there are a lot of otherwise well-meaning individuals who have and do. They should probably reconsider that choice immediately. Behind every Marxist is a raging capitalist who wants the lavish lifestyle to stop with them. Cullors fits that bill to the letter.

In a more sane media environment that wasn’t so completely in the tank for BLM, there would be serious investigative reporting going on to expose this. As it stands, that job is left to smaller, right-wing outfits like The Daily Caller. It shouldn’t be that way, but here we are.

One new study found that radiation exposure didn't genetically harm future generations, while another offers insights into how radiation causes thyroid cancer. //

On this day in 1986, workers ran a safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine. But the test went awry, starting a fire in a reactor and leading to one of the largest nuclear disasters in history. Smoke from the fire and a second explosion launched radioactive elements into the atmosphere, scattering them over the surrounding fields and towns. Now, 35 years later, scientists are still uncovering the extent of the damage and starting to answer questions about the long-term legacy of radiation exposure on power plant workers, the people in the nearby community, and even their family members born years later.

Andy Warhol famously remarked in the 1960s that “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” What a failure of imagination. He simply couldn’t foresee the advent of cellphone cameras, GoPros and the vast digital sewage processing plant otherwise known as YouTube. Once upon a time, home movies were just that, but easy access to all the world’s eyeballs now means that anyone—and I mean anyone—can produce their own reality show and probably attract an audience of viewers too busy to actually attend train wrecks in person. //

David Gagliardi
October 7, 2020 at 11:15 pm
I tell all my students that in a retractable gear airplane an off runway forced approach is always gear up. The instant the engine fails the insurance company just bought the airplane. //

Jim Holdeman
October 7, 2020 at 5:05 pm
Having practiced many times a loss of power via pulling the throttle back to idle, I thought I was prepared enough to handle a total loss of power. However, when the real deal happens in a complex airplane, the reality of total loss of thrust with a wind-milling prop compared to all the common practice is quite a shock.

The descent profile in an attempt to maintain best glide speed is extremely steep. Far steeper than can be replicated in practice emergencies. Depending on throttle position and airplane manufacture, you also have not only a stall warning blaring when you get too slow but the gear horn as well while the gear is still in the wells. These noises are really amplified when the engine truly goes silent vs this 210 with the engine still running.

It makes an interesting cocktail of sensations as the emergency progresses. The sense of denial is astounding, paralyzing at first. Once that is overcome, the next sensation for me was the initial chirp of the stall warning and how loud it now was. I already knew I was slowing down by sound and control feel. However, even when a thought I had really pushed the nose down enough, within seconds I learned quickly…that was not enough. Having pushed the nose down a second time with a real heavy, fast, and long throw push, I had to do my best to trim for that much nose low attitude required, at the same time while searching for a suitable landing site. I was so busy and also dealing with the amazement of how nose low I had to be just to maintain something within 20 mph of published best glide speed that flying the airplane took a lot of attention away from looking for a field to land in.

Since I was flying still way short of best glide speed but well beyond stall speed, I had to make a decision of two potential landing sites based on a descent angle I have never seen before. One was much better than the other. But, it was very uncertain I would make the good one based on this new descent profile. If this was a practice engine out with idling engine, I would have had the good field made easily.

It was extremely hard to turn away from the good field ( the airport perimeter) and aim for the poorer landing site that was at least attainable from my present glide path. Now the question is when to put down the flaps…and make the decision gear down or gear up. And from the several attempts at a restart, the throttle was now positioned at idle adding the gear horn to the atmosphere. Since I saw what appeared as grass, I elected to put the gear down. The amount of forward yoke required as the gear came down now made me very thankful I took the lousy but still reachable field. Now I wondered if I would have enough elevator authority to flare. The grass turned out to be about 3-4 ft tall. As I flared with a mighty pull (through all the down trim pressure) that went to the up elevator stop, the main gear went into the tops of the grass, slowing me down way faster than expected, with a hit hard on all three. I rolled about 50 feet and hit a ditch perpendicular to my path the tall grass was hiding. The nose gear was sheared off and over I went in a split second on my back, stopping instantly.

This happened several years ago. This particular week, I was the third of three Bonanza crashes due to total power loss. I was the only non-fatal. I am a praying man. And I have seen prayers answered many, many times. God understands airplanes very well including good pilot training. I can emphatically say, His voice said” fly the airplane”. That very loud command clearly over-riding all noise, confusion, headset radio background chatter, etc, instantly snapping me out of my paralyzing denial funk. Many might try to make the claim my excellent training supplied that voice. If you are a praying person, you will know God’s Voice. His Voice is unmistakable.

Secondly, this airplane had only lap belts on a non adjustable seat. By all rights, and the law of physics, my head should have been buried into the panel with my upper torso shoved into the throw over yoke. My legs did hit the bottom of the panel bruising them just above the knee. I suffered a cut to the top of my head from the speaker grille when it came loose. A lost my glasses and my cell phone from my pocket from the sudden stop and being flipped over. The most painful and scary part after I stopped was how to get out of the lap belt and not break my neck and/or shoulder when hitting the ceiling. No matter how I tried to stretch, I could not reach the ceiling with the lap belt holding me upside down. So, I knew I was going to fall the last 12 inches directly on my head. I did not get hurt but it was another hard, awkward, hit for my body. Next, I had to figure how to get out of the airplane. The top of the cabin was slightly crushed preventing me from opening the door. So, I had to crawl to the back of the airplane and try to read upside down how to open the rear side windows. Once a figured that out and pulled the pin, I kicked out the window and crawled out. Total time of the event from start to finish was estimated to be about 35 seconds. I was at 3,500 feet when the engine quit making noise. I could see the airport.

Lastly, the first responder was a member of the local helo/medivac team who had just left the hangar and was walking to his car. He heard the engine quit, saw the entire event, lost sight of me in the tall grass until he saw the tail go over and then disappear again. I could not believe, he was standing there in front of me as soon as I got out of the airplane. Since I had lost my glasses, he had to get fairly close to me for me to recognize him as someone I knew.

At the time of the accident, I had 400 hours TT and 1.5 hours in a Bonanza. I had to fly between a tree line and a power pole going to a shed, while still clearing a 6 foot fence that looked to be not a whole lot larger than my wingspan, to plop down in that tall grass. That was not my extraordinary skill combined with a lot of time in type. God snapped me out of my denial, helped me through the trees, lines, and fence. And made sure I did not become implanted into the panel and the yoke. There was no fire. I don’t remember doing it but I did cut the mixture and ignition before touchdown. My total distance from touchdown to inverted stop about 80 feet from and estimated touchdown of 50-60mph. I walked away, the airplane never flew again. Yes, God intervened.

I did not get spared the fright, the denial, the new sensations, the sudden stop. I flew again about a week later. It was a very scary initial flight to overcome what I now know as…total, abject fear. I do not want to experience that kind of fear again. It took me several hours to get comfortable again in an airplane. 10 years later, I own a Bonanza. However, for me, there is no question God intervened to allow me to perhaps tell this story as an encouragement and/ or education for someone else.

If faced with this situation again, I would have open the cabin door, and really think twice about putting down the gear in an off airport landing. Under normal pattern power or even idle power, the pitch change in a Bonanza is noticeable requiring some nose up trim but certainly not dramatic. But after dealing with the reality of how far one must push the nose over to maintain flying speed with all loss of power from cruise, I was unprepared for the amount the second push forward required close to the ground when the gear was on its way down followed with the quick need for a mighty heave for the flare. I never used any flaps. The airplane was already coming down fast and I had all I could to flare.