Pilot, 89, recalls emergency landing on LI beach

Sixty-five years ago, Stefan Cavallo was a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a precursor to NASA.

One test flight in a P-51 Mustang was into a thunderstorm, with hopes of finding out why so many of the World War II fighter planes crashed in bad weather.

At 18,000 feet, and flying less than five minutes in the storm, Cavallo had his answer. Wind gusts ripped open the engine cowling, and flames jutted from the engine, a sign that the P-51's engine design needed reworking. Cavallo ejected and parachuted to the ground.

On Friday, Cavallo, now 89, had to deal with another cockpit crisis.

Engine trouble caused the Cessna 210 he was flying from Maryland to Westhampton Beach to rapidly lose altitude, forcing Cavallo to make an emergency landing in dunes along the beach in Robert Moses State Park.

"I was comfortable," said Cavallo, a widower and the father of two sons, Saturday about the moments before he steered the Cessna, which had become a glider, to safety. "I was really concerned about the people. I was trying to find places without people and boats, but there were no places except the berm."

He suffered a forehead gash and other cuts and was taken to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. He was released Saturday.

While at the hospital, an FAA investigator came into Cavallo's room and said, "I'd like to shake the hand of the man who made a perfect landing on the beach today."

In 1942, Cavallo was an engineering student at New York University and he applied for a job with the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Va., where NACA was based.

Cavallo, who was already flying, figured his future would be with the Army Air Corps during the buildup for World War II. He never made it into the military and flew planes as a stateside test pilot until 1947, according to NASA.

That's when he took advantage of the chance to join a family business. He's now retired from S. Cavallo / Mirror Fair in New York City.

Next year, he will celebrate the 70th anniversary of his first solo flight.

Age "has nothing to do with how old you are," Cavallo said.

On Friday, Cavallo said he was flying back from Maryland, where he visited a friend, and about 10 miles out over the ocean at 5,000 feet when the engine of the 1964 Cessna started to seize. He said he was in radio communication with air traffic controllers at New York's Terminal Radar Approach Control in Westbury.

Controllers gave him headings, instructions on his final turns to line up for a landing, and radioed for a police helicopter to respond, Cavallo said.

One controller requested that Cavallo contact him when Cavallo reached 500 feet altitude.

"I said, 'I'm at 500 feet,' and he said, 'Good luck,' " Cavallo said.

Cavallo said he was close enough to beachgoers that he could see the stunned look on their faces as he glided to a sandy landing.

"I shocked people," he said.

His next flight might have to wait. He spent Saturday in Westhampton Beach, where he has a home and flies out of the Francis S. Gabreski Airport, trying to find the Cessna 210, which was removed by crash investigators.

"I want to see what shape it's in and see what happened," Cavallo said.

Criteria for pilots

AGE: General aviation pilots have no age limit.

CERTIFICATION: Pilots must meet Federal Aviation Administration training requirements for a pilots license.

HEALTH: Pilots must have a medical certificate from an FAA medical examiner.

RETIREMENT: Commercial transport pilots have mandatory retirement age of 65.

Source: Federal Aviation Administration