The Piper Aircraft Company has produced various types of aircraft over the years. In recent times the organization has experienced difficulty in remaining viable. However, the name Piper has been in the forefront in the minds of aviators, especially the many who have flown the beloved J-3 Piper Cub. The genealogy of Piper produced aircraft is lengthy. Eleven of those early aircraft were bestowed Indian names. Those were the Apache, Aztec, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Comanche, Dakota, Mojave, Navajo, Pawnee, Seminole, and Seneca.
Nicholson Air Service, in its Cumberland based operations utilized Piper aircraft almost exclusively in its various flying functions. Predominant in local use were the Navajo for passenger and cargo hauling, the Aztec for multi-engine training, and the Cherokee for the bulk of the single engine training. In the 1980’s Piper produced a completely different type of training aircraft, a two place side by side, all metal, low wing profile, with a distinctive T type tail structure. In line with the previous naming of Piper products, the new airframe was designated the ‘Tomahawk’. Dale Nicholson acquired one of the Tomahawks for use in his flight training school. The Tomahawk drew considerable interest because of the fact that it was a new production and possessed distinguishing characteristics.
One typical summer day in the early 1980’s two of Nicholson’s pilots were aloft in the Tomahawk on a routine training mission. Dale Nicholson had a long standing, rigidly enforced, rule that no student was to use any strange air field for landing practice without previous dual instruction, and without prior approval. The two young aviators had proceeded southwest and were near the vicinity of Miller Airfield, a private grass strip on the east side of the Allegheny Front Mountains south of Keyser, WV. Forrest Miller had established and operated this grass field on his farm for years and it was the home base for 15 to 20 light aircraft, most housed in rough structures of varying sizes and shapes.
Miller Airfield was one of those distinct sites that, due to the terrain features, was used as a one way airport. Departures were accomplished in only one direction, and landings made only in the opposite direction. In this case takeoffs were to the southeast, and landings were to the northwest. The sloping sod runway aided in take offs down hill and, conversely, was an advantage in having an upslope during landings. This allowed the relatively short 1700 feet of usable runway, with an elevation of 1050 feet, to accommodate a variety of aircraft.
The two young aviators had traveled only a distance of about twenty-two miles from Cumberland, still loosely defined as within the local training area from the flight school. A decision was made, not to land at Miller Field, but only to make a low approach on a northwest heading over the runway. What problem could that cause? To simply make a low pass and then depart, without touching down, was undoubtedly their thought at that time.
An approach was made down the runway and, when overhead, power was fully added for the Tomahawk’s go-around and departure. The mindset of the student pilots, ingrained in their training, was that to always go straight ahead for a minimum of 500 feet altitude gain prior to making any turnout. That was the normal procedure, one that they had been taught through their training sessions, and what they had always accomplished at Cumberland.
This logical approach was undertaken, but a problem seemed to be developing. The Tomahawk was not gaining the desired 500 feet very rapidly. At the same time the underlying terrain was climbing in altitude as fast, and then faster, than the Tomahawk with two people on board could ascend at full power. The end result was disaster. The poor Piper Tomahawk had performed at its best, but the aviators directing its movement ended up stalling the aircraft in the canopy of the heavily wooded area to the northwest of the runway. Had the pilots elected to make an earlier turnout (the 500 foot minimum be damned!) they could have gone in either direction and safely avoided the rising ridges to the west.
The final resting place of the totally demolished Tomahawk was in a near vertical position, nose pointed at the ground, with the left main wheel wrapped behind a sturdy ten inch diameter oak tree. This had locked the aircraft in a near vertical position. The propeller and engine shroud ended up a mere two feet from the ground floor of the heavily wooded area. The two occupants, hanging in their safety belts and harness, were able to remove themselves from the cockpit and slide to the ground. They were uninjured physically, but their mental state may have been a different story.
The one and only Piper Tomahawk used in the Nicholson Flight School had come to an unsatisfactory landing in an unstately fashion, and the era of Tomahawk training at the flying school was abruptly terminated.
Site of Tomahawk crash at Miller Field
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Wings Over Cumberland 