Crestline Soaring Society

Picked this up off the Cessna 150 list:

Snake on a plane
Friday June 02, 2006

When Monty Coles lifted his small plane into the air for a leisurely
flight over the West Virginia countryside, he didn't know a
blacksnake had stowed away inside the airplane's instrument panel.

"As far as I was concerned, everything was fine," said Coles, a 62-
year-old private pilot from Cross Lanes. "I did a very cautious pre-
flight check on the plane because it has a fairly new engine. I
didn't find a single thing out of order."

As Coles prepared to land for gas in Gallipolis, Ohio, this past
Saturday, the 4 1/2-foot snake revealed itself.

"I looked up and saw the snake's head sticking out of a hole in the
instrument panel," he said.

At that moment, Coles said his thoughts flashed back to his flight
training 25 years ago. "Nothing in any of the manuals ever described
anything like this," he deadpanned. But (instructor) Benny Mallory
gave me the best advice I ever got -- `No matter what happens, fly
the plane.' "

As the snake poked its head farther outside the panel, Coles tried
to whack it with a handheld radio.

"Batteries went flying everywhere, and the snake dropped down out of
the instrument panel and landed at my feet under the rudder pedals,"
Coles said. "I tried to open my door and kick it out, but it shot
across the cabin floor and climbed up the door on the other side."

While maintaining control of the plane with one hand, Coles used his
other hand to grab the snake just behind its head.

"There was no way I was letting that thing go. It coiled all around
my arm, and its tail grabbed hold of a lever on the floor and
started pulling," Coles said. "I think it was as scared as I was.
After all, it had never flown before."

With one hand on the steering yoke and the other wrestling the
snake, the by-then-desperate pilot radioed ahead for help.

"I asked for priority clearance to land," he said. "They came back
and asked what my problem was. I told them I had one hand full of
snake and the other hand full of plane. They cleared me in."

Coles landed the plane one-handed.

"Some of my friends were there and saw the landing," he said. "They
told me I should fly with snakes more often, because that was the
smoothest landing they'd ever seen me make."

After posing for a few photos with the reptilian intruder, Coles
released it into some nearby weeds.

"That snake resides in Ohio now," he said. "I wasn't about to bring
it home. I don't mind snakes, but I sure like to know where they
are."