Another trike accident
Sad day for the triking community
The ultralight aircraft that crashed in Park Township. (June 30, 2016)
PARK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — One person was airlifted to the hospital after his ultralight aircraft crashed near Holland Wednesday evening.
The crash happened around 7 p.m. at Park Township Airport off Ottawa Beach Road, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office. The aircraft veered off the runway after landing and crashed.
Pilot Richard Henley, 63, was airlifted to a Grand Rapids hospital with serious injuries.
His back seat passenger, 71-year-old Leland Klink, sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene before being released.
The cause of the crash is not yet known. The Federal Aviation Administration will be on the scene Thursday to investigate.
Comments
Ohhh, very sad.
Praying for Richard...
Larry just posted this.....though it worthwhile to read and re-post here....
by Larry Mednick 40 mins ago
"First off I am deeply saddened by the severity of Rick's injury. I have no words for the hurt I feel when the unthinkable happens. Secondly I am very relieved that Ray (the owner of that REVO) was not badly injured and "walked away" from this crash.
So many times we do not have information on EXACTLY WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED when their is a fatality or no witnesses. In this case our witness was in the back seat, and while we may not have every detail, we have enough facts to tell a story.
The short version of the story is this was Ricks 5th flight in the REVO. Rick (the front seat instructor) was reported having a little trouble landing and "needed to work on his landings a bit more" But regardless he put the student, Ray (REVO owner) in the back seat to teach a lesson.
After flying down the coast at full fast trim (Rick confirmed this during conversation in the air) Rick asked if he could take the controls and land at an airport. Ray gave him the controls and they entered a left pattern. They almost went off the left side of the runway just before touchdown, but after a last minute correction they landed on the runway. Then they went to what was presumably full throttle and what the passenger who has 20 hours or so flying described as going extremely fast on the runway and wondering why they weren't taking off. But finally they lifted only to fly the entire length of the 3000' runway at about 8-10 feet in the air. The passenger wondered why they were not climbing as the end of the runway came up very quickly at what the passenger describes as "screaming along". Then as the end of the runway neared it seemed to the passenger they had entered a PIO and the trike cartwheeled at a very high speed "crumpling the wing"
After the accident the passenger was pretty sure the plane was in full fast trim and the pilot never trimmed the plane to slow for landing. After getting the plane back to his house yesterday, today he took a photo of the trim motor which shows the trim motor in full FAST (see photo gallery here on TPS for photo). Now this in itself should not have caused a crash, however if the pilot did not push the bar forward to climb, the trike was trimmed for full throttle straight and level flight.
The pilot did not receive any transition training and refused to call me when I told the owner to have him call me to talk about things like using the electric trim and so forth. Although it is is very possible to takeoff and land in full fast trim, it does make it much more challenging. And if you do not push and continue to hold the bar forward the REVO will NOT climb even at full power if it is trimmed for full fast cruise. If the pilot did not realize this, he was not going to be able to leave ground effect with it trimmed improperly. When trimmed for takeoff the trike will climb out all on its own with only minor roll corrections as needed.
This is what we know, and there can always be more to the story, but the facts do tend to paint a pretty full picture from my perspective.
Again my sympathy to all of Rick's family and friends."
- 1 like
- Leo@LeoIezzi
Happy TrikerLeo liked this
Thanks, Leo.
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- Leo@LeoIezzi
ChristopherLeo liked this
What a sad story!
- 1 like
- Leo@LeoIezzi
ULtrikepilotLeo liked this
Yes thanks for posting Leo. A very sad story indeed.
- 1 like
- Leo@LeoIezzi
KenLeo liked this
:( Sad at so many levels
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- Leo@LeoIezzi
white eagleLeo liked this
My heartfelt prayers go out to rick and all hurt by it. I just hate to hear about crashes.