Ultralight plane crash kills Willcox man An ultralight airplane crash in a Southeastern Arizona canyon has killed a Willcox man. Cochise County Sheriff's deputies arriving at the crash site Wednesday afternoon found the body of 57-year-old Pete Brunner.Why do you think he was keeping watch over his family's ranch with an ultralight? Maybe looking at cattle and such. Possibly watching for illegal aliens messing with his ranch. Quite possible.The owner of Leroy Airport, an ultralight airport about 12 miles south of Willcox, said Brunner had flown out of there that morning as he had regularly for about 12 years.
Officials say a half-hour after his take-off, gusts of wind reached 40 to 50 miles per hour. The man used his small aircraft as a tool for keeping watch over his family's ranch. He was married with two adult sons.
Officials are continuing an investigation into the cause of the crash.
Before I got into ultralights, I checked out the ultralight safety record with the NTSB. About 95% of the crashes were caused by unrecovered stalls. Anyone who can't get his aircraft out of a stall has no business flying so much as an armchair. By lesson two of private pilot instruction, the instructor has you putting your craft into stalls and recovering from them.
The remainder of the danger in ultralights comes from flying into unseen power lines and guy wires. Antenna masts and canyons are common traps for these hazards.
It appears that the death of this Wilcox man is being attributed to high winds, but I can tell you that even though the craft I flew (the Flight Star by Pioneer Aviation out of Conn.) only had a 15 knot crosswind rating, I regularly landed it with 30+ knots of crosswind. Piece of cake (and fun)!
Remember, wind velocities are not the same as crosswind components. If you get yourself into winds gusting 40-50 mph (35-45 knots), you just land into the wind and tie the plane down till it blows over. If the runway is cross to the wind, land somewhere else, a road for instance.
Most modern ultralight include a ballistic parachute recovery system (BRS). Since they deploy explosively, manufacturers claim they will save your life any where from 200 feet on up. FAA ultralight regs give a big preference to ultralights that use a BRS. I've seen video's of the BRS in action and it is quite impressive. I personally know of one person who hit a guy wire at 75 feet, flipped upside down, yanked the cord, and the BRS deployed and saved his life.
Personally, I don't trust the powered parachute, but that's just my thing. A strong gust of wind can collapse a parachute and the powered parachutes almost never come with a BRS (to heavy).
As far as where to get an ultralight, go to the small local airstrips and ask around. They'll tell which airport the ultralights are flying out of. Go there and I'll bet you dollars to donuts, that you'll find someone renting them.
Basic rule of thumb in picking out an ultralight: You want a PLA (a proper little airplane) without any fancy aeronautical designs. You want three axis control, ailerons, elevators and rudder. Stay away from anything with canards, elevons, etc. It should look, feel and act like a Cessna 152, just a hell of a lot smaller (and cheaper).
Let me know if you give it a try.
--Boot Hill