Hi Everyone
I just received this from a friend of mine here on the Isle of Man. Anyone
know who the pilot was. Apparently he is a test pilot who owns or flys a
europa trigear?
Alan
Hi,
Unfortunately, I witnessed a plane crash at Andreas (Isle of Man) on Friday
http://www.iomonline.com/news?articleid=2738214
It was me who called on 121.5 - fortunately, the helicopter was 12 minutes
flight time to the south. I just orbited overhead until he was in the
area, and gave final directions to the site (so the bit about the Sea King
witnessing it isn't accurate!)
It was a Skyraider microlight that went down, on the extended centreline
of 06 at Andreas. The wind was reasonably brisk going straight down that
runway, and he crashed just below the top of the Bride Hills. Our theory
is that with two on board they just didn't have sufficient power to make
it over the Bride Hills with the sink on the lee side of the hills. Some
glider club members had seen the aircraft fly before and commented on its
rather poor climb performance.
The pilot was a PFA test pilot, I think his name was Tim and he owns a
Europa (I spoke to him maybe 45 minutes before the crash because we needed
to move his Europa so I could get the Auster out). I think he'd flown
across(from UK) that morning in the Europa. Unfortunately he now has a
broken collar bone and pelvis from what I hear. Ken Wright (one of the
owners, presumably riding in the back seat) I think suffered a broken wrist.
I was very relieved when I circled the site and saw someone exit the
wreckage. From the air,
it looked like the plane had broken into three pieces (fuse, with the
wings separated from the fuselage).
I didn't see the actual impact. He was backtracking when I had entered
downwind, so I orbited while he turned around and took off, and when I saw
him start to climb out I resumed downwind, and landed. I was doing a stop
and go, and on climbout as I got closer to the Bride Hills, I saw the
wreckage.
13:39
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