Aren't you supposed to put gas in these things?

[rotornut]

http://www.flurl.com/featured/Out_of_Fuel_619.html

[AlanM]

Excellent trg video!

Why does it happen as soon as you start to fly over trees!?!?!? :)

[IO540]

I think the heading

Find Sexy Singles in Rochdale!

is far more suprising ;) ;) ;)

[Genghis the Engineer]

Certainly some valuable training issues, but presumably not a fuel problem since one assumes that he'd checked fuel before take-off and hadn't really had time to exhaust the tank!

Anybody know the type? It looks like a Quicksilver MX to me, but hard to be sure.

G

[bar shaker]

Seen it before and there was some talk about it on a German (?) website, the country where it happened (??)

He had been having engine problems and no one understood why he went over the trees, rather than the 500m of runway that was still in front of him.

Darwin award?

[Final 3 Greens]

What surprised me was the shortness of time between things going silent and arriving in the trees.

Regardless of the decision to depart over the trees, it didn't seem that he could do much else but maintain control and make the best of things - i.e. he didn't try to stretch the glide and stall/spin.

[shortstripper]

Yes I've seen this before as well. It was about six months ago on a website where the pilot offered a self critique and was very open about the event. There was fuel, but the tap was found to be in the OFF position. The pilot feels sure that somebody must have turned it off after the crash ... but can't be sure! The runway was indeed stretched out before him, but he'd already turned away confident that he was unlikely to suffer engine failure and I guess possibly showing off/having fun playing fighter pilot? (Not that any of us ever do that!). Unfortunately his engine did fail!

Regardless of the decision to depart over the trees, it didn't seem that he could do much else but maintain control and make the best of things - i.e. he didn't try to stretch the glide and stall/spin.

Maintain what control? He spun in! Look at the stick position ... no attempt to get the stick forward even before the stall, let alone after! I know at that height he probably panicked, but surely a controlled dive maintaining directional control and picking a gap between tree trunks is still better than a full on spin. Look at the position of the road as he approaches the trees, and where it ends up ... he did at least half a turn spinning and went down with a real THUMP! Easy to say sitting here I'm sure ... but that "don't pull back" instinct has to be honed as the alternative is more often than not DEATH. He was lucky, but sustained serious injuries that could easily have killed him.

SS

[High Wing Drifter]

no attempt to get the stick forward even before the stall, let alone after! I know at that height he probably panicked, but surely a controlled dive maintaining directional control and picking a gap between tree trunks is still better than a full on spin
That is something that Stick and Rudder repeats throughout the book; so long as you don't stall you stand a chance whatever it is that you might hit so point the nose at the ground! Not sure my thoughts will be quite so lucid if/when the moment finally arrives :ouch:

[Genghis the Engineer]

It is perhaps worthy of mention that the clip appears to be in a FAR-103 ultralight in the USA. The yanks have absolutely no requirement for the pilot of such a craft to have received any form of pilot training. (Nor for that matter for the aeroplane to have met any kind of safety standard, although generally they're pretty reasonable).

G

[rotornut]

A friend of mine had the same thing happen but died in the crash. Apparently the engine was running a little rough before he took off and quit just after takeoff. I have been trying to find a copy of the accident report but no luck so far. The accident took place in Canada but the TSB doesn't report ultralight accidents. I've also searched the Ultralight News accident reports to no avail. Any suggestions?