Pilot’s signature-design. One of Mike Patel’s three sibling craft, gleaming as it’s being hauled to a Utah runway for take-off. All three are orange-themed . This was before the emergency over southeast Minnesota.
Cockpit full of smoke but pilot somehow finds RST runway
ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Utah man flying a souped-up monoplane to the Oshkosh air show made a harrowing emergency landing in Rochester after its engine exploded at 27,000 feet and 275 mph probably somewhere over Owatonna. The cockpit filled with smoke. Mike Patey, an experienced pilot who designs planes, glided the plane in a spiral while an air-traffic controller at the Rochester airport cleared a runway. Patel and his passenger walked away from the disabled orange craft. This happened a week ago, but word didn’t get out until Patey posted an account on YouTube. What happened? Apparently the plane’s engine blew up. One of five propeller blades disintegrated as metal bits were spewing into other moving parts. Patey said it sounded like the plane had hit a deer full of TNT. The cabin filled with smoke. Oil drenched windshield. Patel said he had “a little startle panic.” Then, he said, he took a deep breath and just focused. There wasn’t much to see. Besides the smoke and oil, he was in a cloud cover five miles high. With no external reference in sight, he was unable to make the typical straight decline. He radioed the RST controller that he would try to circle the field: “I have one shot at this.” First-responders were on standby in case of fire or a crash. He made it down, but the plane was mechanically in ruins. Patey and his passenger took a commercial flight back home to Spanish Fork, Utah. But not for long. They were immediately in a car on Interstate 80 for Oshkosh. Boy, oh boy, did they have a tale to tell fellow aviation enthusiasts 1,500 miles away at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association mega-gathering in Oshkosh.
Patey. A Utah entrepreneur and inventor, age 50, whose sideline passion is aviation. His designs include a bush plane with a transforming airfoil, solar-power covered wings, dynamic controllable suspension, and two e-bike motorcycles attached under each wing.