By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Most longtime readers now that I long to fly and own some sort of cool ultralight plane. I’ve covered personal helicopters and flying cars and everything in between, but today I found a video of an ultralight crash that definitely made me stop and think. The weird thing is how there is no warning, the guy is happily flying and then BOOM. Result: broken back, broken pelvis, punctured lung, and so on.
View The Video Here via Furl
Reasons Not To Fly An Ultralight Plane
Most longtime readers know that I long to fly and own some sort of cool ultralight plane. I’ve covered personal helicopters and flying cars and everything in between, but today I found a video of an ultralight crash that definitely made me stop and th…
As a longtime pilot, looks like some pilot error involved along with equipment failure. Cannot quite be sure but looks like he stalled the glider after the engine quit. I’m not a fan of ultra’s so if you want to fly, especially a newbie, I’d stick with standard fair.
I though ultralightes were designed to glide if the engine cuts, but if your pretty close to the treetops it doesn’t leave that much room for error i guess.
-Perros-
If your car breaks down you better be able to walk.
If your boat breaks down you better be able to swim.
If your airplane car breaks down you better be able to fly.
-old American saying
Does this device work?
http://www.brsparachutes.com/
Man has dreamed about the ablility to walk up a mountain and fly off with lightweight wings for thousands of years. We are incredibly fortunate that modern technology has finally allowed us to realize that dream.
Hang gliding or other lightweight flight does come with it’s disadvantages though, risk of death being the most critical.
If you know in your heart that you want to take to the sky and fly, you can do it today. If the risk to reward analysis in your life allows for it, I highly recommend hang gliding or paragliding.
We have flown paragliders and hang gliders to over 20,000 feet, more than 300 miles in a single flights lasting 10+ hours; all using only the air currents generated by nature.
Life is not measured in the number of breaths you take, but rather by the number of moments that take your breath away.
What is important to you?
Let this be a lesson to all that fly, It is essential to have a landing spot picked out at every instant of your flight incase an engine out occurs. If you have to fly over an area were no landing sites are present youd better be damn sure you have more alttitude than that poor chap had. If he had another 200 to 300 feet of agl he would have likly avoided a trip to the hospital. I admit flying low is quite a thrill but in my opinion the risk far outways the reward. My best wishes to the pilot, may we all learn from his error
This case and point why these things should NEVER be compared to real aircraft nor the morons that strap themselves to them pilots. They banned 3 wheelers due to an inherently dangerous design. But let’s stick an engine on a collapsible wing and buzz over populated areas, good call.If these guys are that desperate to fly go to an airport and take lessons.
That’s me in the video. The original video with a description of the accident can be found at http://www.fly-ul.com/crash/lunsford/
And yeah… there was definitely some pilot error involved.
He make left turn and
speed go dawn,
go dawn and dawn.
Finally stall.
This trees saved his life.
Pillock! The trees saved his life? So if there were no trees there-just flat ground he would have died?
It’s a simple case of “Whoops I made several catastrophic f**k ups and they added up to this”
Sounds like a decent guy, admits his mistakes. I’ve read several reports where planes have been crashed soon after generating less revs at full power than they should do. If the engine is working ok, it will generate full, smooth power.
Learn. Never fly unless all safety aspects add up. It’s your life and that of other people you carry or may hit. It’s better to shake your head and go home come back tomorrow after some tuning/repairs rather than come back 3 months later when your bones have finally grown back together!
Thanks Marty, I’m sure your openness about being a plonker will save a life somewhere!
And that’s my little ultralight in the picture at the top of this article. It was an EAA photo from Oshkosh. I have flown it in 4 countries, 2 nationals, and 2 world championships. It’s called an Air Creation Racer, made in France.
hello
OUCH! Too bad he didn’t have air brakes, right??
Hmmm.. nice to see some sense being spoken as well as the sensationalist comments. As a micolight pilot in the UK, we _do_ have to go to school to learn to fly and we take all the same exams as pilots of Cessnas, Pipers nd the like. We are also taught to climb at a speed where an engine-out would not result in an immediate stall, but would rather store enough energy such that it is possible to ‘push-over’ to a controlled glide in such an eventuality.
I object to being referred to, even indirectly, as a moron, Steve, simply because I fly an airraft which you clearly do not understand. Moronity is not conferred by outside influences, but is clearly an aspect of the individual – perhaps posting such insulting comments could also be interpreted as moronic?
I also hold a PPL to fly Stuff like Cessna 172s and Piper Warriors, so I can comment with a sensible knowledge base.
The pilot was not ‘over a built up area’, unless you count the truck trailer park, and crashed into trees, which is probably what saved his life by decreasing his final rate of descent to something which the Human Body can tolerate.
He is extremely open and honest about his mistakes. He lost control because his flight parameters did not allow a recovery from stall if the engine quit, neither does he react positively to the stall to regain control. Once he enters the stall he holds the stick fully back – which results in the stall continuing to the ground.
Finally, taking off in an aircraft which is not developing full power, then departing from the runway early to fly over an area with no safe LZ is something which doesn’t bear thinking about.
All in all, no-one who knows anything about aviation can blame the aircraft. It’s a machine. machines will occasionally stop working even with the best maintenance regime. It’s the duty of the pilot to fly in such a way as to make that eventual breakdown survivable with little or no damage.
If Marty had stayed over the long runway while climbing out, if he had kept his speed up, if he had carried out the correct procedure to recover from the stall or if he’d departed from the runway with a clear, safe LZ in reach, he would probably have been ok.
Hats off to you Marty for your honesty and candour about your crash – we can all learn from it. Thanks for letting us see it – it musta been difficult to re-live it.
As to those of you here who simply want to criticise and who presumably have never flown a micro – when you can be constructive and talk from a place of knowledge then you might be worth listening to.
I have never flown a real airplane but i am a serious radio controlled airplane hobbyist. 99.99999% of the pilots who crash and completely destroy their aircraft at my RC club are not nearly as honest as you are about your crash Marty. I salute you and hope your injuries were recoverable.