Sonny Dupler's plane sits just off the access road next to the air strip he was trying to takeoff from Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, when the engine stalled causing him to crash from about 25 feet in the air. Dupler wasn't hurt in the crash, but wasn't sure if his plane would be worth repairing.
BALTIMORE – Former Walnut Township Trustee Sonny Dupler bought his 1967 Cessna 150 F just last week, but he's already done flying it.
Dupler crashed the plane Tuesday while taking off from an airstrip near Ohio 37 and Ohio 256.
"I think I just pulled it off a little quick and stalled it out," he said. "Once you do that, you get all this kind of stuff (shaking his hands) and it's tough to recover."
Dupler, who said he has been flying since he was 9, was not hurt. He said he was traveling around 60 mph when he stalled the plane at 25 feet. The plane then hit the ground nose first, damaging the landing gear and the right wing.
"It didn't hit that hard," Dupler said. "It looks terrible, but it really didn't hit that hard."
Dupler said he just recently got back into flying after a long absence. He said he was not going anywhere, but just planned on flying around. He said it may be cheaper to sell the aircraft off for parts and buy another instead of repairing it.
Despite the scary incident, Dupler was jovial after the crash.
"There's no sense in being upset," he said. "It happens. I've seen others to the same thing."
But Dupler said this was his first crash.
"It's just like a lot of things, you're away from it and you lose your touch," he said. "I just pulled it off the ground, I think, just a little premature and stalled it. Once you stall it and the nose pops up, everything goes to hell in a hand basket."
Dupler said he didn't have time to be scared while he was trying to right the plane before crashing it.
"Never even thought about being scared," he said.
- Source: http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com
Another nice old plane meets it's fate through no fault of it's own. Pilot should have gotten with a CFI until he was more proficient at flying!
ReplyDelete46 George, as I called him, was a great and fast, short field plane, having been into Plain City, OH airstrip for my girlfriends first of several trips in 46 George and down to Hass Field in Bainbridge, OH where I ferried him for a sale from the Fayette County, OH airport for owner, the late Bill Dennis. I sure wish I had been the one giving him a new home! Rachel Foust told me that after we made several trips into Plain City, that we made the local newspaper. PS, I was 17 and she was 16.
ReplyDeleteI have some more memories to share. 46 George did not have wheel pants back in 1968 and 69. He had a climb prop that got me in and out of short fields with ease. Regularly indicated airspeed of 110! Rental rate was $12 to $14 wet. Took my buddy, Gary Spears, down in Southern Ohio to Haas Airstrip, Bainbridge, Ohio, in the Fall. He commented that it was like flying over a bowl of Trics cereal.
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