Crosswind takeoff that went badly. I've been following this build for about a year and a half. STOL champion plane built by a pretty remarkable guy. Mike was pretty frank about the mistakes he made during his commentary on the video.
Crash at 6:18 - Very low speed crash on initial take-off. I'm sure looking back it didn't 'feel right'. (doesn't look right, right from the beginning) The wind was pushing the plane over from the start. Didn't listen to his gut. DRACO was a one-of-kind beast and a work of art at the same time. .
WW1 airplanes were crosswind intolerant and take offs and landings were governed by the windsock not a runway or strip. That rule still applies in some cases still, I guess.
Was this after the races were over? Notice how it really went to hell as soon as the front wheels started to lift. With that engine torque roll may have been a contributing factor.
Not at his home airport, he was attempting to take off from Reno-Stead to go to his home airport, Spanish Fork - Springville. I talked to him in Denver last month and saw Draco perform at a fundraiser airshow. Ironically he was on static display only at Reno because his insurance wanted to up his rate to $45K per year on the plane if he was going to continue to perform at airshows. He said no, too much. Reno added a STOL Drag Race competition this year, and he was planning to do it before insurance issues stopped him. In 2017 a Lycoming failure in this same Wilga nearly landed him in a lake, he barely made it to a cornfield. That engine failure is part of the reason Draco ended up being PT6 powered.
Hell of a consolation prize if that's his wife out there in the camo with high hill boots. That's what I got out of this. That was distracting. And that even the best pilots are capable of overestimating their skill against nature.
Teak - I was fooled by his "mea culpa" video intro. Tha looked to me like it was filmed from the 2nd floor of his own hangar, he talked about still being dusty, and the camera comes through the window to show the wrecked plane. Exterior looked similar, but again, I've only had glimpses outdoors through his hangar build videos about Draco.
So, is it true he built Draco because he did the same thing to a cub before? If so, WTF? You gotta wonder about skill, decision making, or the planes this dude flies...
I thought the same thing when I first saw the video. It's clear both he and his brother are brilliant and have huge capacities to create and build. He broke both the 1,000 km and 2,000 km closed course speed records in a plane he built himself with a highly modified 780. He built and modified a Lancair Legacy (Turbulence) that averaged 438 mph in the AirVenture Cup race in 2016. 400 miles in under 55 minutes. He has also set transcontinental speed records. He's built a lot of planes, and come up with dozens of innovations. The first photo is Turbulence, the second is the 780 engine he modified. He's highly respected in the EAA world. He's building a radical Cub now, but he didn't built Draco because he built a Cub. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Planes are classified as 'Experimental' for a reason, even ones that are operated in the same manner as certified aircraft.
No wrecks before that I know of, just a forced landing in the same Wilga when the engine blew a couple of years ago.