
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993                   TAG: 9311020049
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIS                                LENGTH: Medium

PILOT UNINJURED IN CRASH LANDING BETWEEN TREES

As Lonnie Keith was walking out into the cold to crank his car's engine Monday morning, high above him Leonard Romanik was having serious engine trouble.

Minutes later, Keith was offering a cup of coffee and a room warmed by a wood stove to Romanik, who had just crashed his airplane about 20 feet from Keith's house beside Virginia 768 in Floyd County.

"He did a splendid job of setting that plane down where he did," Keith said, looking out his kitchen window at firefighters and state police milling about the wreckage.

Romanik said he had taken off from New River Valley Airport about 10 minutes earlier when he discovered the throttle was stuck.

He circled for a couple of minutes, Romanik said, losing power and altitude, trying to find a field to land in away from power lines and buildings. But as he flew over a trailer near Keith's house, the engine quit, and the plane, flying about 65 mph, plopped to the ground.

Both Romanik and Keith were uninjured.

"I was flying around happy, smiling, whistling," when the problem began, said the 67-year-old pilot. Then, it was a matter of "fitting it in between the trees."

"I was looking for a shoehorn . . . trying to slide it in," he said. "It was a tight fit.

"I couldn't make my last hurdle."

Romanik, who has 33 years' flying experience, said he had just started the six-hour flight to St. George Island in Florida, where he lives. He'd spent the weekend in Blacksburg with his brother-in-law, Frank Caldwell, repainting the two-seater, single-engine 1950 Ercoupe and replacing its carburetor.

Caldwell said he'd just bade his brother-in-law farewell and had gone to work, when he got a phone call. "I said, `There's not an airport over by Willis . . . ' "

The plane was to remain in Keith's yard until Federal Aviation Administrators could inspect it, state police said. The exact cause of the engine trouble was unknown.

"All I did was lose an airplane," Romanik said, thanking Keith for his hospitality. No damage estimate was available for the plane, which was valued at $15,000.

"You can leave it there until . . . whenever," Keith told him.

by CNB