Doh!!! I usually attend this Fly-in at Tracy. I had to work this year or I would have been there... Finders keepers??


An unmanned parachute that took off on its own at the Burrito Run 2010 Annual Powered Parachute Rally in Tracy had not been reported found as of Saturday evening.MICHAEL McCOLLUM/The Record
By The Record
August 15, 2010 12:00 AM
TRACY - A powered parachute made an unscheduled and unmanned departure from a rally at the Tracy Airport early Saturday morning, soaring thousands of feet into the air before disappearing from view.

The 500-square-foot Six Chuter parachute, which weighs about 400 pounds, was still missing Saturday evening.

The fact that there were no reports of damage or injuries indicated it probably landed in an unpopulated area, said Tom Reed, organizer of Saturday's Burrito Run 2010 Annual Powered Parachute Rally.

It would pose a danger if it landed on a person, hit a car or smashed into a building, Ripon police Lt. Ed Ormonde said. The parachute had enough fuel to remain aloft for no more than 150 minutes and was believed to have come down before noon.

At its apex, the $10,000 parachute, owned by 61-year-old Dennis Clarke of Danville, may have been more than 10,000 feet in the air. Spokesman Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration said in an e-mail that pilots at Bay Area airports were advised to be aware of the wayward parachute.

Reed said the parachute may have kicked into gear when the pilot unwittingly hit the throttle while standing beside it. The pilot tried to stop it, but the parachute took off, traveling in a northwestern direction. The search for the parachute seemed destined to end unsuccessfully.

"It may never turn up," Reed said Saturday night. "I think they've given up on it. It might be in the bottom of the San Joaquin River. Who knows?"

Got an update from someone who was actually there. He pull started it because his battery was dead and some how managed to kick the throttle wide open in the process. It ran him over and took off. It spiraled straight up and they lost sight of it after a while. Several guys took off to chase it but never saw it. Their best guess is it's somewhere out towards Lodi, CA probably in the delta someplace. No one was made a report of it being found yet.

Thought for sure I'd get some interesting comments on this one. This really happened it isn't a joke. The machine still has not been found. They think it's in the delta area around Rio Vista/Lodi someplace.

I'll play.

It was discovered near Lodi by a cult of shape shifting time travelers who immediately recognized it as the crashed remains of a multi-dimensional space ship (the real mission remains obscure, but they believe it was sent to rescue Jessie Ventura). The discovery along w/confirming photographs were dispatched to Art Bell who is this very moment working on a story guaranteed to break the entire MiB conspiracy wide open.

Rumors of powered parachute/pyramids over the Sacramento Valley could not be confirmed at press time.

Hehehe...

I can see it happening, it is hard to imagine no one was able to track it. Were the chasers also flying powered parachutes? That would explain it! Neat aircraft, but speedy they ain't! The poor owner/pilot, the look on his face as it flew away without him, that had to be priceless.

I have never been around a PP, so would it float safely to the ground? Or burn in?

Bad deal for the owner and all involved.

Is there any chance that it achieved terminal velocity and was able to escape earth's gravitational pull? That seems like the only explanation....

lancef53 wrote:I have never been around a PP, so would it float safely to the ground? Or burn in?

Bad deal for the owner and all involved.

They said on departure because it had no weight it spiraled up because of the engine torque..After the engine quit I bet it just flew straight...those things literally land themselves. If it's not in a tree or underwater I bet it's undamaged wherever it landed.

Finders- Keepers?

KB

I guess they found it?

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accide ... _473BG.txt

I hear it was found by lake Berryessa (Napa County) which is just under 80 miles away. Apparently it crashed into a tree near Schoolhouse Island.

Berryesa is real close to me at Nut Tree

Dave wrote:I hear it was found by lake Berryessa (Napa County) which is just under 80 miles away. Apparently it crashed into a tree near Schoolhouse Island.

If that's the case.. it must have flown east of Diablo, voer Byron, over the Delta, over Travis AFB and onto Berryessa.

When that Champ took off out of Petaluma sans pilot it also landed up near Berryessa. Must be some sort of cosmic airplane sucking vortex up there.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_ ... 058&akey=1

Gump

I confirmed with the guy that it was indeed found up on the North end of Berryesa by Knoxville. I plugged a GPS fix of the approximate area into Skyvector and that's almost 80NM from Tracy and the course would have taken it right over Travis AFB where I work. Pretty crazy stuff!