Thank you for the the posts. I am proud that he made it this far and I knew he was a good pilot especially after talking to other pilots he taught. We had a memorial celebration of his life at the aircraft hangar where he started. It's just so hard living with this pain of losing him. I can't imagine what went through his mind when he saw he was in deep trouble. He had to be so scared but at least he died instantly. The condition they found him in was painful to hear.
My wife and I made a trip to the crash site in Pellston, Michigan last year when the snow melted. We saw the tree his plane cut in half and uprooted. We saw the crater in the ground where the fuselage made first contact. We found his pen, a white button off of his shirt, and vinyl from the seat that still had his blood caked in the batting. Broken cockpit glass was everywhere. We left a plaque I had made attached to the tree where his body was found. A police officer who was at the scene showed us the location. We picked up everything we could find to add to a showcase cabinet we plan to set up.
Let me just say, I admire you pilots for your doing what you love even though it can be very dangerous. I admire my son for what he achieved. He wanted to be a pilot at an early age when he and my wife joined Civil Air Patrol. He loved what he was doing and was very happy until the end.