It was a calm sunny day in mid-January as Bob climbed into his
plane to go for a late afternoonflight over the mountains. He started the
engine and it gave a weak squeal as it turned over. Bob thoughtnothing
of this as it happens when it is cold out, but it was more than he could
ever know. He taxied hisplane to the end of the runway and applied full
power. The plane began to accelerate slowly at first butquickly gained
speed, and just as fast it leaped into the air. About twenty minutes into
the flight the plane gave a shudder as a strong gust of wind shoved atthe
small plane. In minutes the sun disappeared and snow took its place.
Bob's peaceful afternoon flighthad just become a nightmare. Bob
attempted to turn the small plane back to the airport but the wind would
not allow it. Thewind had it's way with the plane until that squeal came
back to haunt the young man inside. With ashudder and a bang the
plane's prop stopped. Within seconds the stall horn began to blow and
the planerolled onto it's right side and plummeted to the snow covered
ground. Bob awoke, not knowing how long he was out, hoping that
some one had received his frantic callsfor help. After a day he decided to
try and hike out, he took everything he could carry. He made
gooddistance during the day but at nightfall he knew it was over; the
temperature had fallen below negative fiftymark. The rescuers sent
out search parties and finally found him in his sleeping bag next to a burnt
outfire. They had been looking for weeks, this is what they had
expected.