Membership in some clubs comes the hard way. Take the ‘316 Club’ for instance. To be invited to join you must be a pilot whose plane has malfunctioned in such a way that avoiding death means putting the plane down on Highway 316 in Gwinnett County.
The club was founded Nov. 29, 1993 when WWII veteran and former Delta pilot Elgin Wells Sr. and his son, Elgin Wells Jr., were practicing some nighttime aerobatics in a light airplane just east of the Gwinnett County Airport at Briscoe Field. On their way home, the engine suddenly grew deathly quiet necessitating a hard landing on Highway 316 in Dacula.
Despite destroying the aircraft, no one was injured in the plane or on the highway. “The attendant emergency personnel marveled that my dad had artfully ‘landed’ under high tension lines while taking out a traffic light,” said Wells Jr.
Wells remembers his father, who passed away ten years ago, confused by all the fuss made over the emergency landing. When interviewed after the incident, Wells Sr. humbly noted, “We had a situation and we dealt with it.”
Not a surprising reaction from a pilot with 30,000 hours of flight time. Falling back on their extensive training is how any pilot walks away from a near fatal mechanical failure.
The son remembers a moment though, about 24 hours after the adrenaline rush began to subside, when he realized just how lucky they were and how great it was to be alive.
Planes landing with an emergency can’t be moved until the Federal Aviation Administration has been on the scene and determined the extent of the damage. Maintenance records are reviewed, pilot’s credentials and training scrutinized, and if necessary, the National Transportation Safety Administration is called in for a parallel investigation.
After serious injury or death, the worst thing that can happen to a pilot is to take his license away. The 316 Club is proud to say none of their incidents have ever caused injury or death to others. None have ever had their license revoked.
Up until a few years ago, the 316 Club would meet each year on the anniversary of that first “death-cheating landing” to celebrate friends, family and life. Not all of the lucky thirteen members have landed on Gwinnett’s highway to Athens, but all are connected in some way to Elgin Wells Sr. and the Experimental Aircraft Association or International Aerobatic Club. Four of the illustrious group have landed on 316, one made his second landing along that four-lane stretch just last month in a German war replica Messerschmitt BF 109.
The group is planning to revive their yearly tradition this year after this latest incident, but you won’t hear arrogant bragging. Gwinnett’s 316 Club is filled with pilots thankful for friends, family, timing that allowed a safe landing and hearts grateful to be alive.
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