Oz Report

Fri, Sep 2 2005, 3:00:00 pm GMT

Two very unnecessary deaths.

Arlan Birkett

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Peter Birren «peterb» writes:

It is with a sad and heavy heart that I report Arlan Birkett and a student died Saturday evening, September 3, during a tandem flight at Hang Glide Chicago. Arlan's family in Madison, Wisconsin has been contacted with the news and arrangements will be forthcoming.

From the south end of the NS grass runway, John Licata saw the take off. Arlan was towed to the north, across low power lines and a highway, then appeared to have a major problem with the glider. At a height of about 250 feet, the glider turned 180º and, John says, fluttered to the ground like a wounded bird, tumbling and spinning as opposed to a so-called lawn dart. The impact was in a corn field north of the airport. The student's girl friend was present and was interviewed by the police.

A few possible scenarios and situations can be imagined but they are only speculative. The description, however, seems to point to some sort of a structural failure. More information and suppositions will be available tomorrow when the wreckage is thoroughly inspected.

Arlan and Hang Glide Chicago were just this month featured with a nice 2-page article in Hang Gliding & Paragliding Magazine. Arlan had been an instructor for about 10 years (longer?) And contributed greatly to a sport he loved so much.

Angelo Mantas «Angelomant» writes:

I'm stunned. I'm having a real hard time processing this on a personal level. Last year Mike, then another good friend and former HG pilot was killed last month in a motorcycle accident. Now this.

I have very little info on this. Apparently the glider got off line, then the weak link broke at the tug. This happened around 250', according to the tug pilot, Gary Solomon. Despite the altitude, it sounds like they impacted at a fairly steep angle, although this information is third hand. John Licata witnessed this, but didn't want to talk about it anymore, which is understandable since he also witnessed Mike Haas' crash.

Given the time of day, conditions should have been smooth. There are some thoughts pilots have shared with me, but they are pure speculation so I won't mention them at this time. John and Kris Grzyb are supposed to look over the glider tomorrow.

Arlan was a great guy. He was involved with banking, but walked away from that to start a HG business because that's what he wanted to do. When I got recertified as an instructor last year, instead of seeing me as competition, he thought it would be good to have someone around to do hill training, and gave me an old but airworthy trainer. His efforts gave lots of pilots a great place to fly or just hang out. His quiet demeanor and droll wit will be sorely missed.

Nathan Martin «natdogg1» writes:

Easily the best man I've ever met died today and his student barely older than I (20s). Arlan Birkett and Jeremia died on impact today around roughly 6-6:30 PM. Apparently what can only be described as a freak accident occurred. The glider got out of whack and wasn't corrected soon enough, this progressed into a lockout. At this point no-one is yet sure why, but it is known that the weaklink failed to break (250lb) and as far as we understand the tow rope broke (400+lb test) they were at a high angle of roll and had no time to recover. This all occurred immediately after takeoff and they couldn't of been higher than a few hundred feet.

I had known this man nearly six years of my life and had never witnessed anything less than great respect and kindness to all he knew. Jeremiah was in his 20s I believe and was thought to be a slick pilot by other instructors and was expected to solo. Both will be missed greatly and the holes in our hearts will take some time to mend.

(editor's note: These are very preliminary observations. Guy Denney «guydenney» will be writing up a report and sending it to Joe Gregor and hopefully to the Oz Report. Recent reports indicate that there was apparently no problem with the tandem glider in advance of the lockout. I have asked Guy the following questions:

How heavy was the student? How heavy was Arlan?
How many flights did this student have before this flight?
How long was the tow rope? Was it longer than the regular rope used for towing regular pilots? Was it 300 feet long?
Could the tandem have hit the prop wash? Was the tandem below the tug?
Did Arlan have extra handles on the down tubes to allow him to have extra control (like they do here at Cloud 9)?
What was the strength on the tandem side of the weaklink? Was it stronger than the tug side weaklink?

Arlan used an over/under style harness and the student pilot was on the bottom.

Here is the tandem over/under harness setup at Cloud9.)

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