Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 25, 1994                   TAG: 9411250039
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

CRASH CAN'T GET THIS PILOT DOWN

``I could never give up all the joy I have of flying just because of an accident,'' she said.

Miller, 44, of Goode, and her husband, David, had been flying together Nov. 13. After taking off on the sunny Sunday morning from their private airstrip on Virginia 706 in Bedford County, they spent the morning photographing the countryside and landed before lunch.

Miller got back in the plane alone that afternoon to fly to nearby New London Airport.

Before taxiing onto the grass runway, she performed the plane's preflight inspection for the second time that day. Among other routine checks, she engaged the brakes and tested the engine at full throttle.

``Everything checked out OK,'' she said Wednesday. ``I started my departure and took off. I got up to 150 feet and it just quit.''

After attempting unsuccessfully to restart the engine, she immediately considered how to crash-land the plane. Her first option, landing beyond the end of the runway, was out. She had flown too far for that. And she didn't have time to turn around.

``The only thing I could do was make a left turn and aim for a field that runs along the [Little Otter] river,'' she said. The plane smashed into a grove of trees at the end of the field.

``The last thing I remember was the noise of the crash, and then I don't remember anything else until they were trying to get me out,'' she said.

Miller was trapped inside the plane for two hours while rescue crews worked to free her, her husband said. The crash broke her pelvis, several ribs and one leg. She also suffered a facial fracture. But Miller, an operating room nurse at Lynchburg General Hospital, said none of the damage was permanent.

Now a patient at the hospital where she works, Miller began physical therapy Wednesday. She could go home next week and may be back at work by January.

``I feel pretty good,'' she said. ``Emotionally I'm a little on edge right now, but I feel really grateful to be in the shape I'm in.''

Miller has been flying since 1976. ``It's a hobby and a love,'' she said. ``This [crash] doesn't change a bit. If I'd been in a car wreck, I'd still get back in a car.''