McDaniel RV-6-CH, N424D: Accident occurred November 26, 2012 in Scio, Oregon

NTSB Identification: WPR13FA056 
 14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Monday, November 26, 2012 in Scio, OR
Aircraft: MCDANIEL RV-6-CH, registration: N424D
Injuries: 2 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

On November 26, 2012, at 1537 Pacific standard time, a McDaniel RV-6-CH, N424D, collided with terrain after its right wing departed the airplane 5 miles south of Scio, Oregon. The airplane was operated by the owner under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The private pilot and the commercial pilot were both fatally injured. The airplane was substantially damaged. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and a flight plan had not been filed. The flight originated at the Lebanon State Airport, Lebanon, Oregon, at 1531.

A witness described the airplane as being halfway through a turn at 1,000 feet above ground level (agl) when one of the wings folded up on the airplane. The airplane then rapidly descended to the ground. The Linn County Sheriff’s office reported that the airplane's right wing was located on Highway 226, and the main airplane wreckage was located in a pasture 1,000 feet south of the wing.

Timothy Dean Carter 

 Obituary

Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Beaverton, Ore., escaped the mortal bondage of life on Nov. 26, 2012, from injuries sustained in an aircraft accident.

Tim was born in Emmett, Idaho, to Carl and Goldie Carter in 1966 and was the youngest of seven children.

Tim met the love of his life and future wife Kristine Dedrick in Emmett where they were high-school sweethearts before their marriage in 1985. Tim and Kristi made their way to the Portland area in 1989 where they raised their five wonderful children. Tim was a journeyman plumber who owned and operated Carter Mechanical for the last 14 years. Tim was introduced to aviation 11 years ago and was immediately enthralled. Tim was always happiest when speaking about his family or his "mistress" (his airplanes). He was a cancer survivor who faced challenges with optimism and lived life with a zest and vigor that most people couldn't help but admire.

Tim was a generous man, a devoted husband and a caring, kind-hearted father. He will be missed, he will be remembered and he will always be loved.

Tim is survived by his wife, Kristine; daughter and son-in-law, Valerie and CJ Tillia; grandson, Jim Tillia; daughter, Anna; and sons, Don, Cameron and Will.

Those close to Tim knew him to be a courageous, hopeful and trusting man. Tim would not have wanted anyone to mourn his passing but instead would have rejoiced at the opportunity for those who loved him to gather and celebrate his life. Please honor Tim by joining his family to share your memories of him on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, at Kuan Colorado's, 4708 N.W. Bethany Blvd., Portland, Ore., between the hours of 5 and 9 p.m.

 

 Jeff Kropf

 Jeff Earl Kropf, 45, of Halsey and Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland died in the crash

Jeff Earl "Tebo" Kropf 

Birth:     Aug. 28, 1967
Death:     Nov. 26, 2012
Crabtree
Linn County
Oregon, USA

JEFF EARL KROPF: 1967-2012;
Throng bids Tebo farewell

Pilot. Musician. Jokester. Faithful Christian.

Jeff "Tebo" Kropf, 45, of Halsey, was all this and more.

So it seemed fitting that, at one point during his memorial service Saturday, an "Uncle Tebo" YouTube clip showed Kropf performing a gospel song in four different parts.

Inside Fairview Mennonite Church, four images of him harmonized as an a capella quartet.

"Weep not friends, I'm coming home. Up there we'll die no more," Kropf sang.

He wore a different baseball cap or cowboy hat in the four sections of the video.

It was goofy but reverent.

It was sad but marvelous.

It was undeniably Tebo.

He recently wrote that he loved the song, "Gloryland," and wanted it played at his funeral.

Kropf died in a plane crash Monday afternoon near Crabtree, but his voice filled the church Saturday.

Six of his songs were played, and family and friends chuckled at his antics, and praised his big heart.

"I'm going to miss being silly with you. ... I wish you could come back for one minute so I could have one more hug and we could pray together," wrote his niece, Stephanie Kropf, 21, in a letter that was read to the crowd.

More than 500 attended the service. Another 500 family and friends were listening in Pennsylvania and other states, and nearly 100 watched the memorial service online.

Several speakers at the event used flying as a metaphor for heaven.

Tebo, they said, surely still is soaring above.

"If we remain faithful and true to our faith, we will be flying in formation with him someday," said Pastor Stephen Wilcox of the Spirit of Hosea Fellowship. Kropf belonged to the international group.

Tebo was something of a local celebrity because of his involvement with the Young Eagles. In the program, he served as pilot during the first airplane ride for more than 400 kids.

Kropf "loved to see the joy and sheer delight in their faces," said brother-in-law Alvie Shrock.

The National Transportation Safety Board is trying to discover the cause of the crash that claimed Kropf's life, including why a wing detached from the plane before it tumbled from the sky. An initial report should be released in the next few days.

Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland also died in the crash.

The RV6 kit plane, which was owned by Carter, had been highly modified, said the manufacturer.

Burial:
Alford Cemetery
Harrisburg
Linn County
Oregon, USA

http://www.findagrave.com

 

Jeff "Tebo" Kropf was killed when the plane he was flying in crashed near Crabtree Monday afternoon. Kropf, also known as Tim Corban had flown hundreds of first-time flyers out of the Lebanon airport in the Young Eagles flight program.

Family remembers Jeff ‘Tebo’ Kropf

The plane crash that killed Jeff “Tebo” Kropf of Halsey left his family staggering with grief and shock, too overcome to have a memorial plan yet, brother-in-law Alvie Shrock said Tuesday. 
 
As the investigation into the Monday afternoon crash continues, they cling to faith and to the many memories they share.

“This doesn’t change my view of flying or safety of planes,” said Shrock, who is married to Tebo’s sister, Sheila. “I don’t know why, except God called him home. I don’t know why things happen. We can either shake our fist at the sky or accept that things happen.”

It isn’t the first time members of the Kropf family have had to cope with an aircraft tragedy. Tebo’s grandfather Donald Headings, also a pilot, died along with another passenger and the pilot, distant cousin Ray Kropf, in a low-altitude crash near Yoncalla some 65 years ago.

As an adult, Tebo inherited his grandfather’s log book and used it to track down a plane his grandfather had partly owned. He and Shrock traveled north a few years ago to find the plane, a Piper Cub that now belongs to a pilot who lives near Tacoma, Wash.

The pilot took them all up, one at a time, Shrock remembered, and then Tebo took a picture of the little yellow canvas-covered plane. He digitally inserted a photograph of his grandfather into the finished photograph.

Tebo loved most to fly, but he was also an accomplished photographer. Some of his landscapes can be seen on the walls of Samaritan Albany General Hospital, where he was once in charge of the phone system.

Tebo also was a technical wizard who worked at one time for Hewlett-Packard’s Inkjet division and could fix just about any computer issue you brought to him, Shrock said.

Wiring jobs, hacked Facebook pages, hardware troubleshooting, he could do it all — and willingly did. He built websites for his church, Fairview Mennonite, for local businesses and for others who asked.

“He was a man who constantly did for others,” Shrock remembered.

He held a variety of jobs over his 45 years. In addition to the hospital and HP, he worked for a time for J&J Truck in Halsey. This was after he became estranged from his wife and four children, the oldest of whom is now in his early 20s.

He had started going by Tim Corban at the time, as part of his break from his previous life, Shrock said. The nickname “Tebo” evolved from that.

A self-taught musician, Tebo could play guitar, banjo and bass. Google “Uncle Tebo” on YouTube and you’ll see more than 100 videos of him playing and singing, much of it his own work, Shrock said. He put together two albums with niece Stephanie Kropf.

Tebo lived with the Shrocks for a few years, but he spent so much time at the Lebanon Municipal Airport that Larry and Danna Knox, owners of Lebanon Air Aviation, eventually invited him to stay in the spare quarters there, Shrock said. He had been there for the past couple of years.

The Knoxes couldn’t be reached this week, but Shrock said Tebo loved the job.

He oversaw day to day operations, arranged the fly-ins, and devoted all his spare time to encouraging children to learn about aviation through the free Young Eagles program. He flew more than 200 youngsters last year and had just gone up with his 197th Young Eagles flight of the year this past Friday.

“He loved to fly and he loved to share,” Shrock said. “He was a truly great man who truly cared about others and showed it every day.”

Source:  http://democratherald.com

Firefighters mark wreckage debris east of Brester Road after a plane crash east of Crabtree.

 

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board arrived Tuesday at the scene of a small plane crash that killed two men Monday afternoon.

Investigators from the FAA and NTSB examine the remains of a RV6 two-seat airplane Tuesday morning Nov. 27, 2012, that crashed into a field near Crabtree, Ore., after apparently losing a wing inflight Monday afternoon. The wing was found on highway 226 several thousand feet from the crash site. Commericial pilot Jeff Earl "Tebo" Kropf of Halsey, Ore., and aicraft owner Timothy Dean Carter of Portland, Ore., were killed in the crash. 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The crash of a two-seater experimental airplane this week in the Willamette Valley has shocked people who build their own aircraft from kits or plans. 

 They consider the plane designed by an Aurora company, Van's Aircraft, one of the most popular experimental aircraft in the U.S., saying it's fast, versatile, fuel-efficient and relatively easy to build and fly.

"The performance is great in terms of being able to go both reasonably slow and reasonably fast and to land and take off reasonably short," said Skip Lawson, former president of the Experimental Aircraft Association chapter in Eugene. "They're also known as being over-engineered — they're very strong airplanes."

Witnesses reported that the plane, known by its model number, RV-6, lost a wing when it plowed into a field south of Scio on Monday afternoon, said Linn County Undersheriff Bruce Riley.

The plane's owner, Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland, and his passenger, Jeff Earl "Tebo" Kropf, 45, of Halsey, died.

"I've never heard of a wing coming off an RV aircraft," Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based Experimental Aircraft Association, told The Oregonian.

Carter's plane had passed its air worthiness test and was registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, records show. Carter purchased it fairly recently, perhaps in the past year or two, said his oldest daughter, Valerie Tillia. It's not clear whom Carter bought the plane from.

"The nice thing about experimental aircraft is you can modify and change them pretty much at will," said Bob Duncan, a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association chapter in Hillsboro. "But if you buy an airplane from someone else, you need to do the due diligence."

Gus Funnell of Van's Aircraft said the crashed plane appeared to be highly modified and built from plans with custom components, not from a company kit, citing differences in fuselage, cowling and canopy. He said the motor was not the one the plane was designed for.

"We've never had a structural failure in an RV-6," he toldthe Albany Democrat-Herald. "This plane is an RV-6 in name only."

It's easier to use a kit, but people can save money getting their own raw materials, and builders get the satisfaction of creating something themselves, he said.

There are about 33,000 homebuilt planes registered under the Federal Aviation Administration's experimental category. Van's designs account for about 20 percent of the amateur market, with the RV-6 its most popular model. About 6,000 plans and kits for the plane were sold until 2001, when the next model came out.

The accident rate for amateur-built aircraft is up to three times higher than for lightweight manufactured planes, said Loren Groff, safety analyst for the National Transportation Safety Board. The fatality rate is four times higher.

The agency said 86 people have died in RV-6s in the past two decades. Carter and Kropf were the first this year.
___

Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com

Story, video and photos:  http://www.kval.com

 
 The experimental aircraft that crashed Monday afternoon near Crabtree killing two men “was not built from one of our RV-6 kits,” said Gus Funnell, who provides support for builders at the airplane’s kit manufacturing plant in Aurora.

“It possibly could have come from some plans we had a while ago, but this plane was a highly modified version of the RV-6,” he said Wednesday. “When you compare the plane that crashed to our standard, there are a number of differences.”

In Monday’s crash, a wing from the plane broke off and then the aircraft rammed into a field about a quarter mile to the south of where the wing was found near the intersection of Highway 226 and Brewster Road.

Linn County Undersheriff Bruce Riley said Wednesday that what was left of the plane was removed Tuesday afternoon and taken to a hangar in Dallas, where officials are continuing their examination.

Investigators hope to learn the cause of the crash sometime next week.

Jeff “Tebo” Kropf, 45, of Halsey and Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland were killed.

Investigators still do not know who was piloting the aircraft that went down shortly after taking off from Lebanon Municipal Airport. Riley said Carter flew the plane to Lebanon but no one knows who the pilot was when it took off about 3:30 p.m. “We may never know who was at the controls,” he said.

Funnell, who works at Van’s Aircraft, said “we’ve never had a structural failure in an RV-6. This plane is an RV-6 in name only.”

The RV-6, he said, has an “excellent safety record and it is one of the safest homebuilt planes out there.”

If photographs of an RV-6 and the crashed plane were placed side by side there would be some similarities but “you would see there were differences in the fuselage, cowling and canopy,” he said. “I don’t think the plane was built from kit components, rather it looks like it was built from components someone built himself.”

It’s easier to use a kit but people can save money getting their own raw materials, and builders get the satisfaction of creating something themselves, Funnell said.

He could not say anything concerning what he knew about the investigation because his company is helping to find the cause of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is the lead investigating agency, assisted by the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.

Van’s Aircraft General Manager Scott Risan spent two days at the crash site.

“He was out there looking for failure points,” Funnell said. “He was looking to see what broke and where. You can tell a lot about why something broke by looking at the broken portion of the plane. Under a microscope you can see if there is corrosion or wing spar overload. This is a forensic sort of thing.”

Determining the cause of a crash can be a long process. “An investigation is an exacting science and some testing can take a long time,” he said.

Every homebuilt plane must pass a Federal Aviation Administration pre-flight inspection to receive an air worthiness certificate, Funnell said.

“The inspections are not as thorough as those for a commercial airliner,” he said. “Experimental aircraft are for personal use and you are not selling seats in it so there is a lesser degree of oversight. Yearly inspections after that are required but those are not done by the FAA but usually by a certified airplane mechanic or the guy who built the plane.”

Story and reaction/comments:  http://www.gazettetimes.com

 http://registry.faa.gov/N424D

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 424D        Make/Model: EXP       Description: RV6
  Date: 11/26/2012     Time: 2330

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: SCIO   State: OR   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, THE 2 PERSONS ON BOARD WERE 
  FATALLY INJURED, 5 MILES FROM SCIO, OR

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   2
                 # Crew:   2     Fat:   2     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:    


OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Unknown      Operation: OTHER


  FAA FSDO: PORTLAND, OR  (NM09)                  Entry date: 11/27/2012