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Old 12-26-2015, 04:52 AM
  #63  
Kepi
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Joined APC: Jan 2013
Posts: 34
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I think the key to this NTSB narrative is that my son immediately banked to the right after takeoff, which was westward when he was supposed to be headed south. I believe he felt something was wrong with the engine but still had power to accelerate throughout the 58 second flight. Since he had power, he made the right bank and continued to accelerate to over 150 kts. At some point on that bank, the engine completely lost power and he tried to keep his pitch up but was only able to get to negative 2 degrees. His forward motion continued as he took off the tops of trees and then impacted the trunk of a tree. I went to the crash site and saw the tree. It was a large hardwood tree that he broke in half and completely uprooted the trunk. The aircraft then turned on its side and wrapped around 2 other trees. My son was thrown through the roof and landed about 10 yards ahead. The engine landed on top of him. My lawyer was able to get the police photos and one shows his foot sticking out from under the engine and rubble. It's a terrible site that haunts me. It was pitch black that night so he had to be watching his instruments and would have known the attitude of the aircraft. I'm sure he tried as hard as he could to complete the turnaround.
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