Small Plane Ditches North of Gnoss Field Runway; Pilot Unhurt

A man flying back from Petaluma airport was forced to ditch his antique plane Thursday afternoon just north of Gnoss Field in Novato, according to airport, fire and eyewitness reports.

The man was identified as Paul Clary of San Rafael, according to Novato fire Battalion Chief Gerald McCarthy.

Clary, who was unhurt, was flying a yellow single-seat 1946 Aeronca 7-AC when his ship went down at 1:46 p.m. on the north side of a levee separating Gnoss Field from swampy pasture that separates the airport from the Redwood Landfill.

Marin County Sheriff’s deputies and Novato fire crews responded to the call and struggled to make their way to the plane because of the levees that surround the airfield.

Airport manager Vince Siebern said Clary’s plane was probably flying between 40-50 mph when it touched down and skidded for about 200 feet in the marsh. The plane came to rest about 500 feet short of the runway against a fence. McCarthy said there was damage to the nose and wing, but there was no fuel or oil leakage.

 “I think there’s an old adage that says any landing you can walk away from is a good one,” McCarthy said. “He did a great job. He was walking around the plane when we got there. We just went out there to make sure there were no environmental issues.”

Back at the airport about an hour after the crash, Clary told Siebern that the engine quit on him at about 300 feet. Clary said he believed the cause of the power loss was and effect called carburetor ice, an atomization of water vapor. Siebern said that can happen even on days as warm as Thursday.

Clary is a regular pilot at Gnoss Field and has a hangar there, Siebern said.

Siebern said the airport was officially closed for about one hour, but there is no way to get word to all pilots in the local airspace of the closure. Since Clary’s plane was not on or near the runways and emergency vehicles did not need to use the runway to reach him, there was no need to pull out the 75-foot yellow X’s and place them at the ends of the runway that tell pilots not to land.

“That would be the protocol if it had been something more serious,” Siebern said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were notified of the crash as well as the Marin County Department of Public Works, which oversees the airport.

The Aeronca plane is rare because of its age but was very common and relatively inexpensive, Siebern said. It is similar to the more famous Piper Cub, constructed of a tubular cage and covered with fabric.

McCarthy said the airfield’s rural location north of the city limits was a benefit in this situation. “Thankfully this wasn’t over a populated area,” he said. “The remote location of Gnoss Field allowed for a successful outcome.”

Gnoss Field, off Binford Road near the Rush Creek marsh, celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2010 and was commended for its track record of safety by the Marin County Board of Supervisors.