Huckleberries: A pilot's perspective on accident

LaDonna Beaumont hasn’t forgotten about the horrible July 5 crash above Lake Coeur d’Alene that claimed eight lives. Neither have other local pilots.

Most of them subscribe to the belief: That could have been me.

“While we are somehow comforted that this might have been an unavoidable fluke … we are also acutely aware that our pursuit can be a precarious one,” LaDonna writes in the October edition of AOPA Pilot (“Perspective: Tragic summer Sunday: A new pilot searches for meaning”).

The Coeur d’Alene woman has been flying her Cessna 172 for more than a year now. In August 2019, her father, Claude McCaw of Post Falls, was her first passenger. After the midair crash of a float plane and a Cessna this summer, her first call was to her parents. She flies over Lake Coeur d’Alene whenever possible. She didn’t want them to worry.

“As a new pilot,” LaDonna writes, “I knew they would be frantic if they caught the story first.”

LaDonna learned of the crash shortly afterward from a friend who called to make sure she wasn’t involved in it. In her article, LaDonna tells how the aviation community in the Inland Northwest is “tight and supportive.” After the crash, local pilots “were careful not to make assumptions or start rumors.” They kept in touch by texts, emails, and Facebook posts.

They tried to make sense of a crash involving two planes flown by safety-conscious men who were airline transport pilots. The crash would be easier to process, LaDonna said, if someone had made a mistake or something mechanical had gone wrong.

But there’s a strong chance that the tragedy was simply an accident.

Non-pilots have asked LaDonna to explain why the two pilots didn’t see each other on such a clear summer day. “It is far harder to spot traffic aloft than most people imagine, especially on a clear day, with only a small head-on profile to look for,” LaDonna writes.

LaDonna loves sharing her enjoyment of flying with others. Her passenger list has grown to nearly four score. She never flies over the lake without thinking about the tragic crash and saying a prayer for the families of the victims. She plans to honor their memory – and others who have died in plane crashes – by being the best pilot possible.

“I know I am in good company,” she said.

No longer ‘unhideable’

In case you were wondering, Stephen Colbert's "unhideable” book is now hidden in a small room of the Coeur d'Alene Library. Through the glass window of a door with crime-scene tape posted across it, you can see the oversized book leaning against a wall. Last November, the special edition from “The Late Show” host was the talk of the town. Colbert sent his book, “Whose Boat Is This Boat?” to the library after learning that a self-appointed censor was hiding books opposed to President Trump. "Whose Boat" is comprised of quotes by the president that Colbert considered inappropriate in the aftermath of a 2018 hurricane. For months, people visited the library to check out the huge book and take photos with it. In this time of pandemic, library spokesman David Townsend told Huckleberries, librarians moved Colbert’s gift to prevent people from huddling around it.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Come January, we’ll remember/how bright the sun shone in September – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Autumn Thought.”)

• Overheard (at City Park): Woman: “Do you know your Daddy has jumped out of airplanes? Are you going to be tough like your Daddy?” Rather than responding, a boy, about 3, in multi-color jacket, dragged the woman toward the Fort Sherman Playground. The swings in the play area probably are as high as the boy wants to go at this point in his life.

• A Kellogg patrol officer didn’t cite – or even warn – that guy who ran a stop sign on Hill Street the other day, for good reason, according to Sgt. Paul Twidt’s Roll Call report: The guy’s wife “was already doing a pretty good job of telling him he didn’t stop.”

• Server Hailey had a disarming response after she carded two 34-year-olds from Portland recently: “You have young eyes,” she said. And then she fetched their margaritas.

• Twenty-five years ago, the county was buzzing about Louisiana-Pacific’s plans to close its Post Falls mill in November. The news affected 113 workers. Speculation was rampant that either Bob Templin or Duane Hagadone would buy the 29.8 acres of prime real estate on the Spokane River. Neither did. And the property still is re-developing after all these years.

Parting Shot

Brett Goodman, 18, of Rathdrum, flew solo for the first time recently, and a hair stylist at Walmart is glad he did. For most of his life, Brett’s father, Doug, had cut his hair. But Brett was ready for an upgrade to a real stylist. Before Brett went out the door, his mother, Angela, told him to make sure he left a tip. Afterward, his mother asked Brett about his experience. “Ma,” he replied, "I didn’t know how much to tip, so I gave her 10 bucks.” That’s $10 for an $18 haircut – 55 percent. Not to worry. Brett will get another crack at the art of tipping in a month when the hair starts growing over his ears again.

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D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.