Plane Destroyed Following Emergency Landing In Quarry
A two-seat experimental Sadler Vampire made a forced landing in
a rock quarry in Findlay, OH on Wednesday, after reportedly losing
power. The plane was destroyed in a post-crash fire, but we're
happy to say the 24-year-old pilot walked away with minor
injuries.
The Findlay Courier reports 24-year-old Barak Mowry, described
as "a licensed pilot and instructor," told local police he was on a
test flight, and lost power after departing the Findlay Airport.
When he realized he was over a residential area, he recalled
maneuvering toward the Tarbox-McCall Quarry, owned by National Lime
and Stone. The pit is no longer producing, but is used as a dump
for masonry materials.
Mowry managed to avoid the water-filled portion of the quarry,
and even put the plane down on an elevated spot, but slid over the
edge and dropped about 50 feet before coming to a stop on a flat,
dry area.
Utility worker James Stewart was on his way to a call when he
says he saw the plane in trouble. "We saw it go over, and it was
dropping pretty fast," he said. "I knew it was in a tough
spot."
Stewart said he climbed over an eight-foot fence separating the
parking lot of a tire plant from the quarry, then scrambled down to
where the plane had stopped bouncing. "He was just getting out when
I got there. I walked him back to a rocky area, and by that time it
was on fire."
After another witness used a mobile phone to call 911 at 12:56
pm, there was some confusion as to which quarry was the scene of
the accident. When they arrived a short time later, firefighters
had to rappel down to the plane with handheld extinguishers to put
out the fire. Findlay Police Chief Bill Spraw told the Toledo Blade
the aircraft is a total loss.
The FAA was reportedly on-scene Thursday to investigate. Findlay
Airport Manager Robert Johnston told The Blade that Mowry had
mentioned an engine heat problem shortly before the accident, and
said he'd be testing, but didn't expect to fly. Airport personnel
later heard Mowry's radio call departing on runway 7, followed by
sightings of black smoke.
The Sadler Vampire has one of the most interesting pedigrees of
any small aircraft. In 1982, Bill Sadler won the Grand Champion
Ultralight award at Oshkosh with his mid-wing, twin tailboom
pusher. After about 30 were built in the US, and the design
licensed briefly to an Australian firm, further commercial success
proved elusive.
In the 1990s, the plane was reincarnated as the Piranha, an
attack and surveillance plane for the Turkish military. The Piranha
was a Vampire with a reinforced airframe, retractable gear, a
450-horsepower engine, a 30mm cannon, and mounts for up to a
half-ton of rockets or small bombs. The Turks discontinued the
program.
At EAA AirVenture 2007, Sadler brought the design back as
the two-seat Vampire LSA (shown above),
with fixed landing gear, a longer folding wing, and Rotax 912
power. By Lakeland this year, Sadler had fitted the plane with
a twin-rotor RotaMax Wankel-cycle engine.
Aero-News has confirmed the accident aircraft featured a RotaMax
powerplant, but it's not clear in what configuration. RotaMax
recently settled on an Australian-sourced propeller speed reduction
unit as standard equipment, but the Vampire parked at the
enginemaker's AirVenture booth this year sported a small-diameter
propeller configured for direct-drive, with no gearbox.
As of late Thursday, RotaMax had declined comment on the
incident.
Sadler is currently working towards S-LSA certification for the
Vampire, with an eye towards offering the aircraft as an E-LSA kit
as well. It's unknown how Wednesday's mishap will affect that
plan.
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