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I don't know how I missed this horrible news

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Basil

Basil

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Recently I was trying to contact our local vet to see about bringing in one of our cats who had lost a lot of weight lately, I called the number I had for his clinic but it went straight to voice mail and the VM was full. After trying to call for a couple of days, I finally called a friend to see if she knew what was going on with the vet. She informed me that our Vet, Dr Bowker, had been killed in an Ultra-lite crash while testing an Ultra-lite he was thinking of buying. This apparently happened a month ago, but somehow I missed the bad news.

Dr Bowker was a heck of a nice guy who really cared for the animals! I would often see him flying his ultra-kite paralleling along I-40 when I was driving to work in the mornings.

His wife was one of our NAMI Family-to-Family teachers and in fact I just finished teaching a 12-week class with her a couple of months ago.

Very sad to hear this happened.
 
So sorry to hear this bad news. I've had my own experiences with ultralights.... after just one solo flight in one I made the decision to never again fly one. It's got to have an "N" number on it before I take the left seat.
 
Sorry to hear this.

I've flown several. But overall, I'd agree with Elliot....they are sketchy to fly in anything bigger than a super light breeze.

Wal-Mart heir John Walton was killed in one abut 10 years ago. You would imagine he could afford a good one. But that's the trouble; even the "good" ones are not real airplanes.
 
aeronca65t said:
Sorry to hear this.

I've flown several. But overall, I'd agree with Elliot....they are sketchy to fly in anything bigger than a super light breeze.
Click to expand...

I was lucky enough to come away with a badly sprained ankle after being "nosed" into the the ground in one during training. By the way, my instructor at the time also met his demise in one after it came apart on him.
You are correct Nial there are no "Good" ultralights.
 
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We just tied down three Stearmans after a spraying session, walked around the hanger and watched a guy crash one and died on the spot. That was bad enough to see, but the three of us didn't know until a couple minutes later, his wife and two children were there watching. What a horrible site, we all got tore up just seeing the kids. Called the E squad and they confirmed his passing. Sad, very sad. I would never fly one of those rag wings! PJ
 
Nasty news. And affirmation that a proper airframe is the only way to go.
 
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