Mother crashes ultralight on first solo

Interesting, don't recall the video after this happened, wonder when the video surfaced? This crash was beat to death on this or another board.
 
I tried to find a report on the incident, but apparently I am not so good with working the FAA and NTSB sites. Did the woman have any time, or was this a "Hey, that looks fun, let me give it a go" type of event?
 
We had another Darwin want to be, close to me a little over a year ago killed himself on his first flight...no training just put it together and tried to fly it....

http://abc13.com/archive/9279375/
 
aanderson81 said:
I tried to find a report on the incident, but apparently I am not so good with working the FAA and NTSB sites. Did the woman have any time, or was this a "Hey, that looks fun, let me give it a go" type of event?
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It is an ultralight so no guarantee of a proper investigation although iirc there was talk of charges can't remember if it was criminal, careless and reckless type, or FAA.
 
You would have figured the father and/or the son would have had a hand held and told the mother how to get back down.......
 
No death, so even if the FAA / NTSB heard about it they probably weren't interested.

Didn't even teach Mom what a stall was it appears. I bet she had the stick back all through the sequence but the thing kept recovering itself through it's own post-break nose down.

The day I had my engine failure the FAA was largely disinterested (they closed the airport, so they did no) because some ultralighter killed himself two counties over. I don't think the NTSB ever got involved in that one either.
 
ClimbnSink said:
It is an ultralight so no guarantee of a proper investigation although iirc there was talk of charges can't remember if it was criminal, careless and reckless type, or FAA.
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One article I came across mentioned that she said the rudder was jammed, but the FAA found no indication of mechanical failure. But I didnt find anything beyond that.
 
PIO is the bane of many designs, couple that with a 'no training required' in the operating rules, and this outcome is somewhat predictable.
 
I'm confused. Was this her first time ever in a plane?? "First solo" would imply she had training leading up to it. The video seems to indicate otherwise...
 
Henning said:
PIO is the bane of many designs, couple that with a 'no training required' in the operating rules, and this outcome is somewhat predictable.
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Take off looked nice and controlled and she had P factor under control....

Almost looked like a rigged/fake video...:dunno::dunno:
 
N801BH said:
Take off looked nice and controlled and she had P factor under control....

Almost looked like a rigged/fake video...:dunno::dunno:
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Yeah, I doubt an absolute newbie could control P factor in a taildragger on ice. No way. That plane would still be ground looping.
 
Crash is real I remember when it happened. Takeoff might be an earlier one with a 'real' pilot, edited in.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
I'm confused. Was this her first time ever in a plane?? "First solo" would imply she had training leading up to it. The video seems to indicate otherwise...
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How do you train for a single seat plane? Even if she had a few flights in a 152, it wouldn't have prepared her. Ultralight started as a "Teach Yourself to Fly" deal, and many people have managed. Some models had a 2 seat trainer, and they became LSAs, but not all models. Pt 103 has no training requirements.
 
N801BH said:
Take off looked nice and controlled and she had P factor under control....

Almost looked like a rigged/fake video...:dunno::dunno:
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Hard to call, there may have been a rigging failure. I don't think the video is fake.
 
"Don't call anybody"rofl: I like her style.;) "Nah, I'm ok, don't call 911, just help me get out of this thing." :rofl: Never flown before, crashes, 'I'm good'
 
MAKG1 said:
How much P-factor could you have with a 40 HP engine?
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Truth right there:lol: Think 1/10 your power Ben, I doubt it would show.

Anybody know where the trim is located in that plane? I have been in planes where you could gab a trim handle not far from the throttle that worked identically. If she grabbed the trim instead of the throttle and worked it, it would produce that flight pattern...:dunno:
 
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Henning said:
How do you train for a single seat plane? Even if she had a few flights in a 152, it wouldn't have prepared her. Ultralight started as a "Teach Yourself to Fly" deal, and many people have managed. Some models had a 2 seat trainer, and they became LSAs, but not all models. Pt 103 has no training requirements.
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Yeah, I've always heard those things are really dangerous, I figured it was due to a lack of training. That and the 2-stroke engines they used to put in them (and may still do for all I know) were not exactly paragons of reliability.

They look really fun to me.
 
Looks to me like she got disoriented, lost the field (even though it was right under her) and freaked out.
 
steingar said:
Yeah, I've always heard those things are really dangerous, I figured it was due to a lack of training. That and the 2-stroke engines they used to put in them (and may still do for all I know) were not exactly paragons of reliability.

They look really fun to me.
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I had about 75 hours in hang gliders when I flew an ultralight for the first time. That time was mostly high altitude thermalling in the mountain west. I had less than 5 hours in a real aircraft.

The ultralight was a trike configuration and a battened wing with tip rudders. I planned to do some taxiing to get used to the ground handling. I gave it a bit too much throttle, and as it went faster and faster I came to the conclusion that flying was less dangerous than what I was doing.

I raised the nose and took off. It had pretty benign handling characteristics and I didn't have any problem making a couple of trips around the pattern and landing.

I flew ultralights a total of about 20 hours before I decided they were just too dangerous. The wing loading and speeds were so much higher than a hang glider I figured the energy in a crash would be more than I wanted to deal with. There was also the issue of engine failure with the two stroke.
 
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