While I was in Baja last week there was some action with a Mexican who purchased an ultra-light on floats. I was busy fishing so I missed seeing the action and so this is all second hand info from a friend who witnessed the events. The low time pilot...who had no previous experience, was attempting his first flight on Thursday. My friend who has some pilot experience was curious and went over to see what was going on. He talked with the aircraft owner and got the story that he had purchased it in the U.S. for $13,000 and really had no flying experience and asked for some pointers. He said that you want to take off and land into the wind, you should get some training from a qualified person, yada, yada. So, as the story goes...he does taxi out and get the thing flying for about 5 minutes and awkwardly gets it back onto the water and to the beach. He says he will be back on Saturday. He shows up on Saturday and attempt to take off with two buddies on board. They were probably well over gross weight and under brain weight. They skip along trying to get off the water and into a cross wind situation where they bounce up off the water and down with the downwind wing and float down, digging in for a spectacular water-loop. The Federales were commandeering boats to get out to the crash site. My friend who is a retired Firefighter Captain was first responder onsite. No serious injuries, busted the aircraft up pretty good. They were lucky not to have sustained serious or fatal injuries. I'll post some pix later. I was glad to be out fishing as this would be difficult to witness

Did it happen to look like this ?



More info Here

Yep! That is it. Those photos are better than the ones I was sent.
Thanks for the technical support.

donknee wrote:Yep! That is it. Those photos are better than the ones I was sent.
Thanks for the technical support.

We aim to please...

(We miss alot !)

Hey, that's the beauty of ultralights and Part 103 (here in the US.) Build it yourself, and kill yourself, nobody's stopping ya! It's the spirit that launched aviation.

Although that machine prob doesn't qualify for Part 103...

Hmmm: "The cause of the crash is still unknown, but many folks believe the pilot had become so overcome with excitement about Loreto Fest starting at the beginning of May that he was unable to concentrate on anything else - even the plane's altitude"

Now, that's a new one ! Wonder if the MTSB will buy it? I like it, anyway.

MTV

mtv wrote:The cause of the crash is still unknown, but many folks believe the pilot had become so overcome with excitement about Loreto Fest starting at the beginning of May that he was unable to concentrate on anything else - even the plane's altitude"

That is the funniest thing I have read all day.