Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- A late-morning flight from Palmer to Wasilla on Thursday turned into more of an adventure than expected for longtime pilot and former aircraft builder Bill Diehl.

Diehl, who sidestepped a question about his age but said he'd been around planes since he was 11 years old, is the former owner of Arctic Aircraft Co. and maker of the Bush plane, the Arctic Tern. He said he was flying to Wasilla to help a friend with plane trouble.

Diehl flew his 1995 Arctic Privateer, a blue-and-white experimental plane, from Palmer Municipal Airport on his way to Wasilla Municipal Airport about 11 a.m.

Partway there his engine gave him trouble. A passerby who stopped to help said he heard the plane sputter and stall a few times.

In the air, Diehl looked around for an open spot and saw an uncharacteristically empty stretch of Knik-Goose Bay Road, which typically carries a lot of traffic.

A single pickup truck coming from the other direction saw the plane approaching and stopped with emergency flashers on, he said.

"It was very fortuitous," Diehl said while working on the plane. "There was no traffic, and what traffic I had blocked the road."

Diehl said it was the first time in his flying career he made an unplanned landing.

He touched down at about Mile 3 of Knik-Goose Bay Road, just north of Lakewood Drive.

He taxied onto Lakewood and stopped the plane just off the subdivision road, on the dirt path where four-wheelers and dirt bikes usually drive.

The problem seemed to be contaminated fuel, Diehl said.

After working on it a short while, he packed up his toolkit and pushed the plane back to the subdivision road.

With a yell of "Clear" from the cockpit, he fired up the plane and the engine ran smoothly.

Two Wasilla Police Department officers and a code-compliance officer blocked lunchtime traffic for the few minutes it took for Diehl to get back on the road and take off.

The plane soared quickly into the sky, avoiding power lines nearby. With a waggle of his wingtips, Diehl flew on to Wasilla Airport.

Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.

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