An ANN Reader wrote us, "I just wanted to let everyone know that Bluegrass Ultralight Group (BUG) and Brotherhood of Rotorwing Pilots (BURP) member [some reports said, President --ed.], Casey Stiles, was killed in Boyle County (KY) Tuesday as he flew his gyro near the Danville airport. 

"Details are sketchy, but witnesses say that he went down in a field with a black smoke trail behind his aircraft. Casey is a safety-minded pilot and worked as a helicopter powerline inspector for the Kentucky Utilities company. 

"He was an instructor pilot and trained many of Kentucky's ultralight pilots. Please say a prayer for his family, for he will be greatly missed."

Reports from the area say his Subaru-powered machine must have been in a lot of trouble. Stiles's friend and fellow BUG, Joe Pircher, was on television later that night. He said, "It had to have been a catastrophic accident.  There's nothing Casey couldn't handle."

Stiles was flying alone, when the gyro went down on Warbec Farm near the Boyle-Lincoln County line. According to one report from the area, he had told a fellow pilot just hours earlier, that he had a couple adjustments to make on the machine. That didn't sound unusual to him, he said, as Stiles had built it himself, and constantly made improvements, over the years.

** Report created 01/24/2002 Record 3 **

IDENTIFICATION

Regis#: 97CS Make/Model: EXP Description: 1999 CASEY STILES CHOCTAW

Date: 01/22/2002 Time: 2120

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N

Damage: Unknown

LOCATION

City: DANVILLE State: KY Country: US

DESCRIPTION

1999 EXPERIMENTAL ROTOCRAFT CRASHED ON A FARM UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, 1 FATAL, DANVILLE, KY INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 1

# Crew: 1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: UNKN

OTHER DATA

Activity: Unknown Phase: Unknown Operation: General Aviation

Departed: UNKN Dep Date: Dep. Time:

Destination: UNKN Flt Plan: NONE Wx Briefing: N

Last Radio Cont: NONE

Last Clearance: NONE

FAA FSDO: LOUISVILLE, KY (SO01) Entry date: 01/23/2002

FMI: http://home.earthlink.net/~bkstapleton/index.html