Detour in the Sky Part 2

In case you missed it: Read Detours in the Sky Part 1 here. 

For the next 20 to 30 minutes of nonstop terror, I realized I was lost somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. If I went down over this vast space, no one would ever know it. They’d never discover where or when I disappeared.

By now fuel was running low. I continued to ask God for help in finding my way back to land and to sustain me in flight. Instinctively, I started to conserve fuel every way I knew. I throttled back the engines and adjusted the propellers to their most economical slow-flight performance mode, trying to squeeze every mile possible out of each ounce of gas left. But despite my fuel-saving efforts, the fuel-gauge needle dipped lower and lower. That gauge took on another dimension. Now it was also a life gauge, predicting my life span.

Suddenly, I saw the needle on my Omni gauge move…

and in a few minutes, I heard the static of an airport radio coming into range. It was the best thing I’d ever heard since Barbara had said “I do.”

The radio receiver was now bringing in the Crescent City airport signal. As soon as it grew strong enough for me to use it to get a direction, I learned I was flying exactly on the right coordinate. I thanked God for this turn of fortune, feeling maybe he still had things for me to do on this earth.

When I arrived at Crescent City, I got another good break. The bank of fog lay just off the edge of the airport, making the runways easily visible. Still I got on my radio to declare an emergency landing because my fuel gauges were now showing empty. In fact, I purposely glided my aircraft from flight level down onto the runway. Later, I learned that because I had not arrived in Eureka, the FAA staff at the Eureka airport was about to initiate an inquiry to other airports, sites, and stations in the system along my submitted flight plan.

As I climbed out of the Piper Apache, my legs still a bit shaky, I was nearly overwhelmed with the realization of what had just happened. If I had not caught that brief glimpse of the magnetic compass’s spin when I removed the Jeppesen guide, I would have continued in the wrong direction until it was too late. That brief glimpse had definitely been a God-moment, preventing me from plunging to my death in the Pacific Ocean.

Still, in spite of God’s protection over my life, it was several years before I told Barbara about my nearly disastrous sky detour. We were growing a family of five kids, and her life was busier than mine. I figured she already had plenty to worry about.

My business continued to depend more and more on my use of a small private plane. I set up an office in San Mateo, near Palo Alto, just south of San Francisco. Working there was a general superintendent of construction, along with Kendall Peterson, an estimator. We did a lot of work in the region building state office buildings, some college dormitories, and a couple of hospitals. But our biggest challenge lay ahead—on another mountain peak.

***

This is an excerpt from my new book, Detours to Destiny: A Memoir, available in Kindle and a version for all other e-readers. Now you can read the entire story to discover what happened after my detour over the Pacific Ocean. Watch for details about the paperback version soon to be released.

© 2018 Elling Halvorson. All rights reserved.