Barton Crash 1 july 12

[jayteeto]

Watched a microlite total itself on landing at the Barton 'open day' today. Pilot and first time flyer pax eventually walked away with minor injuries. Can't say the same for the poor aircraft or my underwear. Certainly was a shock to see!

[bingoboy]

Jayteeto, do you know what type?

[jayteeto]

A kite with an engine! Sorry, but absolutely no idea, it hit the ground hard in a gusty wind and sort of rolled over. I have to say the craft stayed in one piece and didn't really leak fuel, so respect to the manufacturer. Threshold speed to zero in about 10 feet!
PS. It happened well before 3pm

[DavidWoodward]

Jayteeto, do you know what type?

It was a Mainair Pegasus. I was working the car park at the time and heard the crash alarm so headed over. There's a photo on airliners.net of the aircraft on its side and the prop breaking off. It made for an interesting time for our flying school as we had aircraft up which had to divert to Warrington until the runway was cleared.

[goldeneaglepilot]

There was another thread running where Genghis was talking about airfields not wanting the type to visit.

Photos: Mainair Pegasus Quik Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Mainair-Pegasus-Quik/2127118/M/)

They normally cope with wind a lot better than most GA types. Nice to hear they were both OK

[Genghis the Engineer]

On a semantic point - Pegasus and Mainair were historically different companies, which merged a few years ago into P&M Aviation. Both brands were continued, but the Pegasus brand has carried on more strongly longer, and the type is a "Pegasus Quik". Gorgeous aeroplane to fly the Quik, but does require a fair bit of precision in your flying compared to the previous generation of flexwings.

Looks like a classic "rollover" accident, which used to be regularly fatal until it was realised that the major crashworthiness issue was restraint of the rear seat occupant (their bodies were coming forward and on occasion breaking the neck of the front seat occupant). Mandating rear seat upper torso restraints about a decade ago fixed that virtually overnight.

So whilst very happy to hear it, I'm not particularly surprised that both occupants got away with only minor injuries. The speed this all happened was probably around 30mph. I'm guessing strong and gusty winds, probably with a significant crosswind component, which would be consistent with the type of accident.

A very nice aeroplane has been destroyed, but that's what insurance is for and they can build another one.

I'm sure that AAIB will do their usual competent job - but with two PoB to interview (and photographs!), their task is happily relatively straightforward.

G

[DavidWoodward]

There's no shortage of witnessess considering the open day was on! The wind was more or less directly down the runway at the time and it looked as like the wind just dropped off and he landed heavy causing the roll.