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kinda not so fun - whenever i see a plane flat on its back, i assume the pilot didn't far too well.
i'm feeling a little sensitive tonight–a guy that has been a major annoyance at the home drome, flying a true pos ultralight, clogging the pattern, and exhibiting a supreme lack of airmanship and understanding of regular aircraft movements and protocol, crashed in the pattern this afternoon. I was taxiing out and heard another plane call for airport advisory, with the accident aircraft calling out the wrong runway as active ( for some reason, the guys at my airport LOVE to land with quartering tailwinds. I hate it, and have to chastise, cajole and generally bully everyone into landing as close to the wind as possible. I corrected it, not knowing for sure if the ultralight guy had been flying patterns to the downwind runway or just couldn't remember which runway was which. in any case, i was disturbed to know this guy was flying with me. the airport has discouraged him from flying during active time (i.e.: the weekend) at our airport because in part it is a very busy field with a lot of mixed traffic (jets, lots of training, etc) and mostly because he's proved himself to be a major bonehead in the past. well i heard him call 'departing- closed traffic' and thougth, swell- i have to deal with him later. i do my runup and get up to the hold short line, checking traffic. i had my wife and kids with me and said to the wife kinda thinking out loud, someone else should be in the pattern . . . i called departing traffic and lined up on the runway and started putting the cobs to it when i heard to faint calls 'EMERGENCY-EMERGENCY'
i whipped the tail around to make sure that someone wasn't dead-sticking in behind me and then thought that it had to be (I'm sorry, this is what went through my mind) the individual of questionable judgement in the ultrlight probably just crashed on downwind. I announced departure when an instructor on the freq said we have an emergency, which made me abort and take an early turnoff - i was launching only after clearing the pattern for a dead-stick, knowing in all probabllity who was down and where, and launching with the idea of locating him, but the instructors voice made me abort. anyway i went back and took off, and he and i, after coordinating our altitudes searched for the guy. i'm a tow pilot and have located many planes that have landed out - gliders. in my experience, a plane that lands in a field is very easy to find - sticks out like a sore thumb even if you are searching a large area. even in a mature corn field, i've found gliders easily from the air. here i am searching a very small area - x-wind to downwind and after looking at the open fields realize there's no way i'll see him if he goes into the woods. I never could see him. i landed and went to the operation office (after telling them on the radio about the sit and assuming the authorities had been notified) and asked if they'd called the police/fire/whatever? well, they hadn't and wouldn't know where to tell them to go, etc. I mentioned that the guy took off in front of me, called closed pattern, someone sounding JUST LIKE HIM! only a lot weaker had called 'emergency!'on the radio, twice - and them said plane wasn't seen again - I think you should call someone! (The cherokee instructor had seen him last turning downwind) Then the ops guy said, "well, the LAST time he crashed . . ." he apparently ran out of gas in the same area after TO, walked out, filled up and took off. What kind of f***ing individual of questionable judgement runs out of gas in an ultralight with a clear gas tank right behind their head?? So I already know this guy is a hazard, and it's confirmed by the ops guy, but I also know that he has to be in the trees somewhere out there, so I actually have to MAKE the ground guy call the authorities.
Sorry for the long post - I guess I had to get it off my chest. They airllifted the guy out to the trauma center. I think if I hadn't insisted and just assumed, this guy would still be out in the woods. On principle, guys like this burn me up - they give all pilots a bad name, bring us negative press and make the general public weary of planes. We've had a few bad things recently - this only serves to reinforce the publics opinion.
sorry again for the spiel
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