Not all made it home safe this weekend

[ScottM]

For those of us here on PoA that were off flying to places, meeting people, reacquainting ourselves with online friends or just relaxing it was a great weekend. Fortunately all the PoAers made it home safe. But not everyone who went flying made it home this weekend.

Today I went and changed the oil on my plane and then went and got some gas. While I was flying I heard some strange radio calls on 123.05MHz. I was refueling up in Burlington and 3CK is down close to my house shares that frequency. 3CK is also where I used to be based at. The radio calls I heard were news choppers and I knew something was up so I ended up just going home.

This evening I got some bad news.

http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/09/03/news/local/doc46dc6f9a1a6d2064687251.txt#blogcomments

"Two killed in plane crash at LITH airport"

Lite winds today. high clouds, hot (91F).

I have met one of the guys several times. There are a couple of YAKs that fly out of 3CK and I remember seeing this one and talking to one of the guys at the pumps not too long ago. Since the press has not released names I won't either but my thoughts are with the families.

 

[AdamZ]

Not good news at all but Jeez Scott ya had me a bit scared it was a 6Y9er plane. Sad no matter who it was

 

[woodstock]

Dang Scott, bad news all around. Sorry to hear this too.

 

[terzap]

Sad news indeed. Sorry to hear it. My thoughts to the friends and families.

 

[ScottM]

The names have been released
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/09/05/news/local/doc46de7c8331b38663974636.txt

Burdine, 51, of Barrington and Hildebrand, 49, of Fox River Grove died after Hildebrand’s small, single-engine Yakovlev 52 plane crashed shortly after takeoff from the Lake in the Hills Airport just before 2 p.m. Monday.

Both of these guys were real good guys. Dave also taught at Blue Skies one of two FBOS on the field. I never flew with either but would talk airplanes with them. Dave was somewhat of a fixture at the field and had a true love of flying. Dave also flew a Mig17, http://www.squadron17.com/, in a air show and is a former fighter pilot

 

[ScottM]

Oh the news is just so bad about this accident. The funeral was Saturday for the pilots and I have refrained from writing this until after it was over. But those that were first at the crash site reported that there was no fuel odor nor any spilled fuel. The Witness also reported the engine was sputtering at take off consistent with fuel starvations. It MAY be that this was a case of trying to take off without any or enough gas in the tanks. This is all preliminary of course but the same info was given to investigators.