Wetaskiwin air show crash

[BibleMonkey]

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/08/04/pi ... a-air-show

right after the show
Nice guy, fun act. Hope he heals up quickly.

[EA757]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3uKpQu1URs

[single_swine_herder]

Wow .... what bad news .... Kent is a super-nice guy and its been my pleasure to work with him at many functions and drink even more beers with him.

The whole family are just great, and his dad Al was an aviation icon.

I, along with many others will be wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.

The Swine

[Old Dog Flying]

Ifirst met Al in 1971 at YMJ and Kent at Langley mid 90's and both were/are great folks.

Kent took an elderly fellow flying after the daughter helped Kent at the Langley 1st of July airshow. The old guy had had a stroke and could not speak or walk(for about 3 years) and of course he had to be helped into the aircraft.

During the flight the pax was gtinning from ear to ear, enjoying Kent's piloting skills. After shutting down Kent tryed to help him out of the Cadet but the fellow grinned, said no thanks, "I can do this by myself" and climbed out of the aircraft.

True stoty..I was there.

A speedy recovery Kent

Barney

[pelmet]

A12W0102: The privately registered Interstate Cadet S1A-65F, registration N37361, had departed Runway 30 at Wetaskiwin (CEX3), on a local 5 minute VFR flight around the airport. During the climb-out, at about 75 feet above ground, the engine (Continental C90) quit. As the pilot maneuvered to reach a suitable forced landing area the aircraft struck the ground and rolled into a ditch. The aircraft sustained substantial damage and the pilot received minor injuries. The pilot had performed an aerobatic routine earlier in the afternoon; that routine included releasing parts and articles from the aircraft during flight. The purpose of the accident flight was to locate a piece of shelf liner paper that had been dropped from the aircraft during the airshow performance; the shelf liner had landed in a farm field adjacent to the airport. There are three fuel tanks in the aircraft, two in the wings and one in the forward fuselage. The pilot flies airshow performances with no fuel in the wing tanks and minimal fuel in the fuselage tank. The aircraft had not been refueled after the airshow performance; however the electric gauge on the 19 US gallon fuselage tank was indicating approximately 1/4 tank prior to take-off. The pilot had initiated the take-off with the fuel selected to the fuselage tank and a rolling 180 degree turn on the runway.

[Colonel Sanders]

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Se ... 319-1.html

Hmm.

[pelmet]

Even the best of the best make mistakes. Something for the rest of us to keep in mind. Super hero pilot Dale Snodgrass(read about him here) http://www.joelnelson.com/Corporate/Dal ... ss_857.cfm landed an F-86 gear up a few years ago.

Some make fun or ask questions in disbelief(like on this forum) as if they are somehow better but you are no better than these guys. Remember that.

[Colonel Sanders]

Not sure how well you know Snort, but IMHO he is
better than the rest of us. Surviving 5,000 hrs in an F-14
is an incredible accomplishment.





Ask him sometime about the first time his Dad took his
Mom flying (in a PT-22 Ryan). Amazing he was born,
after that.

[pdw]

I'd imagine the F-14 might also be kept trim on fuel for the lower flybys ?

[JMACK]

[jeff_w_yeg]

Wow...

I actually had the pleasure of flying with Ken at a media day out at CFB Moose Jaw many years ago (would've been around 2000 or 2001?) - and I'm pretty sure it was in THAT very aircraft. We actually did the dead-stick landing, doing the nice coast down the runway to where his son was standing with his hand up. The tip of the prop gently touched his hand and that was that.

Class act and a great guy.

This cracked me up though:

“The plane is pooched,” he said.

Your professional opinion? Ha ha...

Glad to hear Ken is (more or less) okay.

Jeff @ YYC

[Donald]

Taken from a Facebook rant by a fellow Wetaskiwin airshow performer:

Well just got back on Facebook. Been doing an Airshow every weekend for past six weeks and was away this past week delivering Kent's airplane.
Time to check in and squash a few rumors!
I was performing at the Wetaskiwin Show with my good friend Kent Pietsch. It's sad to read and hear all the silly FALSE rumors of what happened with Kent's incident. I say incident because any aircraft that sustains only minor damage is actually an incident and NOT and accident. (sorry venting already and I haven't even gotten started!) The Air Show was OVER and everyone was leaving for home. Kent was re-positioning his aircraft from one side of the airport to the other side where we were all parking for the night. Kent departed the runway and experienced an engine failure at what looked like about 80 feet above ground. Landing straight ahead was not an option and would have resulted in disaster so Kent turned the aircraft around 180 degrees. Now I dont think there is a Pilot on this planet that can pull off a 180 degree turn at less than 80 feet at I'm sure close to stall speed. Well I guess there is one!(good on ya Kent!) The required turn to make the runway would have been about 220 degrees but his altitude and gravity prevented it. He turned right instead of left because the crowd was on the left and he did not even think about risking any fans safety. When he was a few feet from the ground he knew he was roughly 40 degrees shy of being lined up with the runway. Ahead looked fine and just grass until he realized there was a massive ditch in his path. He did manage to level the wings and his right wing did not contact the ground. He could see the ditch now directly in front of him off the left side of the button of the runway. (about 6 to 8 feet deep) He tried to bounce the aircraft on the ground prior to it to clear it. Now after milking that turn all the way around he simply had not enough elevator authority to complete the bounce to clear it. When the aircraft touched the ground the gear collapsed which resulted in him sliding on the ground directly into the far side of the ditch, which was i'm sure like hitting a brick wall. I was back in the hot ramp on the far side of the runway and jumped into my rental car and tore ass down the runway. I think I was second on the scene. Kent was already out of the aircraft and was pretty angry (at himself) Before I continue - Kent Only you could have pulled that turn off and electing to turn right away from the crowd was a selfless act of heroism! Well done Sir! Sadly we waited for 25 minutes for the fire and ambulance people to show up. This is something that should be brought up at ICAS and every other safety meeting as that response time is unacceptable considering the incident occured about five minutes after the Air Show was over. (sorry to rant but 25 minutes??????) Luckily my friend (edit) was with me who is a trained Firemen and he secured Kents neck as a precaution. Kent was calm and more worried about how his cut lip would look and how mad his wife might be. His injuries were bruses and a cut lip which required some stitches. The aircraft is totally re-build able and knowing Kent will fly again by this fall. When the Crash Fire guys finally did decide to show up and took Kent away I quickly grabbed a bunch of garbage bags and duct tape and with the help of a few guys covered up all the logos on the airplane to prevent some reporter from snapping a pic of the plane. The volunteers (, and others) that responded and helped out in lieu of the non existent fire department did an outstanding job and remained calm and really saved the day! Good job guys! Once we secured his plane we all went down to the hospital to check on Kent. It broke my heart to see him there blaming himself for a bent airplane after knowing that the facts are the facts. If it was any other Pilot in that seat that Pilot would be DEAD. Kent did an outstanding job and should be given a medal for disregarding his own safety to ensure the safety of everyone on the ground. I had this weekend off so I brought his airplane down to Minot for him in my skidoo trailer. 40 hours of driving will give you a square ass but we would have driven a million if needed because Kent is Kent and he , in my humble opinion, Defines Air Shows! Kent, Air Shows wouldn't be the same with out you and it is an honor to call you a friend! Well done SIR! Get better soon. See you at the next show!