Mike Patey's Wilga was involved in an incident today at Reno Stead. Looks like there were some heavy winds today as the current TAF shows winds gusting to 35 knots. I hope all involved were all able to walk away!



The whole ordeal was caught on video.

another site reports pilot and passenger are OK.

I hate speculation as much as anyone, but if he was using rwy 26 (as it appears in the video), the 1655Z winds were 160@29G37.

Edited to remove anger.

2nd edit: I gotta give him credit. Not only did he own this, but his video should be required viewing for every one of us, IMO.

I guess I’ll keep my Best Tug!

I am relieved to hear that they were able to walk away. This looked like a nasty ground loop.

A crosswind component of 31knots is just a little over my personal limit. I hope that we will get to see a fully detailed accident report in the near future.

Stuff happens, we all know that, Mike will probably have it back up and flying in a week, time TO GET BACK TO WORK!

When is High Sierra?

1:1 Scale wrote:When is High Sierra?

That is exceptionally mean yet terribly funny!

Mike has already posted his side of the story. What a legend. We love you Mike, keep it up!

I think Wilgabeast is a different aircraft that was already crashed a few years ago by a different person.

Zzz wrote:I think Wilgabeast is a different aircraft that was already crashed a few years ago by a different person.

You sir, may be right. I remember Cory Robin calling his Wilga that as well. There are so many named Wilgas it’s hard to keep them straight!

Yep, different airplane. Here is the Wilgabeast in all her glory.

Not the best picture, but one of the last...

I will say that Draco is/was one beast of a wilga!

I sure as hell learned something today. If this sorta thing can happen to the best of us, it can sure happen to the rest of us. Gotta pay attention to what everything is telling you. I'm surprised to hear him talk about how difficult it was to taxi out straight and that he knew something was up when the shock was completely compressed because of the wind.

He owns the actions of the accident. Big respect for that. Sorry to see it torn up but glad to see everyone is ok.


Back to a LOT of work....

Mike Patey openness and self-assessment is a valuable lesson for all, thank you sir

pilotryan wrote:

Zzz wrote:I think Wilgabeast is a different aircraft that was already crashed a few years ago by a different person.

You sir, may be right. I remember Cory Robin calling his Wilga that as well. There are so many named Wilgas it’s hard to keep them straight!

Yep wilgabeast was wrecked a few years ago... although I'm sure he will still sell you a t-shirt

Mike,

Thanks for allowing many pilots to learn from your mistakes. I have also made many mistakes and have completely destroyed two good airplanes. I understand Drako was capable of even 90 degree angle across, but I never had tower or uncontrolled airport peer problems with serious angle across in crop dusters or pipeline airplanes. I think peer pressure is a contributing factor in too many wind management accidents in particular and energy management accidents in general. FARs are pretty open minded and we don't have to please the gallery. Best wishes getting back on the horse.

OK, I'll go ahead and say it: with the takeoff performance Draco has (ain't saying had, yet) I would have taken off more into the wind, as long as I missed the runway lights, extending my takeoff roll onto the dirt median is no big deal. And he'd still been up WAY before the taxi way. But real pilots don't do that, right? That white line down the center of the runway is just a suggestion to me.....but keep in mind I came up from flying ultralights, where we had no real cross wind control and knew nothing about "proper procedure", we just took off into the wind as much as possible, and hell we weren't at an airport much anyway. I did just that two days ago at Henry's Lake, screw the center line (dirt runway, forget that), I had plenty of usable space, 45 degrees off of it, but straight into a 20 mph wind. It's always a bit of a embarrassment when I do that, like a real pilot would have the cross wind control to land straight down the runway, but I don't give a shit, I don't want to bend my plane. You former ultralight pilots know what I mean, tradition bound conventional fliers will probably shake your heads. He had the STOL performance, in spades, to pull that off easily, but straight down the runway is how it's done, right? Maybe he WAS cutting across the runway at an angle, I really can't tell from the video. I'd bet he thought of that, but it may have been too radical of a takeoff appearance wise, maybe crowd control came into it too.

His super cushy long travel gear didn't help either. EDIT: I just watched his video he made, after I posted the above, my admiration for his flying abilities remains unabated, he knew he could cheat and make the takeoff safer, but got sucked into the big airshow/tower on the field thing, and wanted to keep it more 'regular." I always remember, the guy in the tower is not going to be in my shop for a few hundred hours helping me repair the damage, keeping him happy is way down my list.Last edit: the big hug from his wife right at the end.....made ME feel better, he'll be fine.

courierguy wrote:OK, I'll go ahead and say it: with the takeoff performance Draco has (ain't saying had, yet) I would have taken off more into the wind, as long as I missed the runway lights, extending my takeoff roll onto the dirt median is no big deal. And he'd still been up WAY before the taxi way. But real pilots don't do that, right? That white line down the center of the runway is just a suggestion to me.....but keep in mind I came up from flying ultralights, where we had no real cross wind control and knew nothing about "proper procedure", we just took off into the wind as much as possible, and hell we weren't at an airport much anyway. I did just that two days ago at Henry's Lake, screw the center line (dirt runway, forget that), I had plenty of usable space, 45 degrees off of it, but straight into a 20 mph wind. It's always a bit of a embarrassment when I do that, like a real pilot would have the cross wind control to land straight down the runway, but I don't give a shit, I don't want to bend my plane. You former ultralight pilots know what I mean, tradition bound conventional fliers will probably shake your heads. He had the STOL performance, in spades, to pull that off easily, but straight down the runway is how it's done, right? Maybe he WAS cutting across the runway at an angle, I really can't tell from the video. I'd bet he thought of that, but it may have been too radical of a takeoff appearance wise, maybe crowd control came into it too.

His super cushy long travel gear didn't help either. EDIT: I just watched his video he made, after I posted the above, my admiration for his flying abilities remains unabated, he knew he could cheat and make the takeoff safer, but got sucked into the big airshow/tower on the field thing, and wanted to keep it more 'regular." I always remember, the guy in the tower is not going to be in my shop for a few hundred hours helping me repair the damage, keeping him happy is way down my list.Last edit: the big hug from his wife right at the end.....made ME feel better, he'll be fine.

If only we could all be the incredible pilot you think you are.

pilotryan wrote:

1:1 Scale wrote:When is High Sierra?

That is exceptionally mean yet terribly funny!

Mike has already posted his side of the story. What a legend. We love you Mike, keep it up!

This is a legend.