Model Airplanes

RIVERSIDE — There was something wrong with the Cessna 310 when the San Jose pilot first tried starting it.

There was side-to-side shaking when it finally climbed into the air from Riverside airport Monday afternoon.

There was smoke reportedly trailing from the twin-engine plane before it crashed into a house, less than a mile from where it had taken off.

And now, with three people dead, one passenger badly burned and another hospitalized after a dramatic escape from the wreckage, investigators will try to solve the mystery of what really happened — mechanical trouble, human error, difficult conditions or some combination of all those.

The tragedy has hit San Jose hard: Returning home after a cheerleading competition at Disney’s California Adventure Park, two of the contestants’ mothers — Stacey Pierce and Silvia Farelas — were aboard the plane piloted by Pierce’s dad, retired tech veteran Nouri Hijazi. He, along with his wife, Dana, perished when the plane crashed into a home. Farelas, who crawled to safety, lost her oldest daughter, Adine. And though the young cheerleaders were spared, having taken a bus back home, Pierce was badly burned and has been hospitalized in Southern California.

March 2, 2017

By StarNews Staff and The Associated Press

Today is Thursday, March 2, the 61st day of 2017. There are 304 days left in the year.

Today in local history

In 1979, a New Hanover Memorial Hospital was confronting a shortage of nurses that was expected to worsen as the hospital preparted to open a new ninth floor the following month. UNCW’s nursing school, the hospital’s top source of new nurses, was not able to keep up with demand at the time.

In 2007, the Wilmington Model Flying Club was looking for a new place to fly model airplanes after New Hanover County and Wilmington announced plans to buy a 63-acre site off Murrayville Road from Peggy Olsen. The property would become a baseball and softball complex.

Today’s Highlights in History:

On March 2, 1867, Howard University, a historically black school of higher learning in Washington, D.C., was founded as it received a congressional charter. Congress passed, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the first of four Reconstruction Acts, providing for “the more efficient Government of the Rebel States” by dividing the South into five military-run districts.

On this date:

In 1793, the first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, was born near Lexington, Virginia.

In 1836, the Republic of Texas formally declared its independence from Mexico.

In 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.

In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship as

Article source: http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20170302/flashback-this-date-in-history-march-2-2017

Pueblo resident Helen Shmoldas celebrated her 100th birthday Wednesday, in a small celebration of about 25 family members and friends at Primrose Retirement Community, where she’s lived for the past two years.

A native of Livingston, Texas, Shmoldas said that even after living through 10 decades, 18 presidents and two world wars, the things she’s most proud of are her time spent as an artist and her close connection to her family.

“There’s so much that’s good, but the thing that surprised me most that I have enjoyed thoroughly is finding out I could paint pictures,” Shmoldas said. “And of course I’m proud of all three of my children.”

Shmoldas began a lifelong love affair with painting when she was already in her 40s, when a casual trip to the hardware store to buy paint for her son turned into a life-defining moment.

“My son made model airplanes and he wanted me to go to the hardware store in Spring Branch in Houston to get him some paint to paint his model airplanes.

“So I went, and while I was there they had an art class going on in a side room and I was staring at them and looking at them and paying with the lady at the same time, and she says, ‘Why don’t you go in there and join them?’ and I said ‘Oh, I don’t know how to paint.’ And she said, ‘Well that’s what the class is for!’ so I left there with everything I needed to try to paint

Article source: http://www.chieftain.com/news/pueblo/puebloan-at-years-old-love-and-help-other-people/article_ed0e631b-1100-5db9-9316-dca27cc0d855.html

EAST HAVEN A pilot aboard the Piper PA 38 aircraft that crashed last week near Tweed New Haven Regional Airport declared an emergency following several uneventful landings without specifying the nature of the emergency, according a preliminary report issued National Transportation Safety Board.

The report released Wednesday details the moments leading up to a crash that left student pilot Pablo Campos Isona dead and seriously injured flight instructor Rafayel Hany Wassef. The detailed report didn’t find any issues with the plane’s mechanical components. The weather reportedly was overcast, with wind speeds at 5 knots (slightly less than 6 mph) and 10 miles of visibility. The information in the report is based on preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The report didn’t say which pilot made the mayday call Feb. 22 following three uneventful touch-and-go landings at the airport.

“The airplane then spun to the left, descended and impacted terrain about 1,000 feet southeast of the departure end of Runway 20,” the report said.

The report said another flight instructor flying in the airport’s traffic pattern during the time

Article source: http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20170301/preliminary-federal-report-issued-for-fatal-crash-near-tweed-new-haven-airport-shows-mayday-call-was-made