Microlighters

I never had a brother. Only an older sister. Then much later, during the early 90`s, met Eastwood Thomas Loftus. Everyone called him Loffie. It soon became evident that we shared a great passion for aeroplanes, aviation, flying and everything to do with flying. He was a first generation trike pilot, and soon after we met he bought himself an old dilapidated trike, fixed it, and started flying again. Over the years our friendship grew, and we became more like brothers.

Then he did something daft. He bought a gyrocopter kit from a local. Initially I was as enthusiastic about this project as he was. But as the building progressed, I got increasingly worried about a lot of aspects pertaining the construction of the aircraft. (I was not an AP yet, but already built 2 nice aircraft, and learned enough in the process.) A concern shared by the old DCA, as they bluntly refused to register the gyro, or issue an ATF for it. Warning bells really started clanging loudly when Loffie fitted a real boat anchor of an engine. ( Fine engine for a boat, use it as an anchor, I told him. He was not amused)

After many nights of battling to get things working and at my pestering an insistance, he finally gave it up for a bad job and covered the gyro with a plastic sheet and gave it up for a bad job.

He then bought the first Bushbaby kit in the Cape. This was a bit more in my line and together we had a lot of fun and arguments while building and assembling the BB kit. He was one of those enquiering minds that always questioned everything, and wanted to know: "WHY" about everything. The BB was the first powered by the belt-drive Volloksie, and the learning curve was very steep. Fortunately the BB is a very forgiving little aerie, and it never did bite us very hard...... BUT it sure gave us a couple of nibbles! It was good clean fun and we learned much from it.

Over the years our friendship grew and became stronger. We had lots of flying adventures and shared lots of tears and laughter. We were about the same age, him little less than a year the senior.

Then something worrying cropped up. He removed the plastic sheet from the gyrocopter and started tinkering on it again. The designer told him, in my presence, that "this thing is so easy to fly, you can teach yourself". A statement I cocked a beady eye apon right away , and which would later come back to haunt me. Unfortunately Loffie was easily influenced by bad advisors. The designer of this gyrocopter was very good at making HIS bad advice sound good. Loffie wanted to sell the gyro, and this bloke told him, the value would be increased greatly if it flew. I had beeeeg misgivings about this statement, and urged him to get rid of the damn thing in pieces.

One evening he phoned me, and we argued about the wisdom of trying to fly this contaption. He assured me again that he talked to the designer just before he phoned me, ant that the man insisted he fly the gyro to increase the value, for resale purposes. We talked and talked for nearly an hour, and I almost thought I had him cinvinced it would not be the wise thing to do. I was worried when I put the phone down.

Next morning, about nine, my phone rang. It was Vaatjie. Good mutual friend of me and Loffie. " Boet, sit jy?" A question normally preceeding news of the worst kind..... " Boet, Loffie het nou net die gyro probeer vlieg, en hom morsdood geval." NO, NO! Denial, it cannot be, tell me it is not so. ANGER. WHY? All emotions at once. BAD.

Vaatjie heard the engine noise from his house, and arrived at the airfield just in time to see the gyro take to the air. Loffie was trying to fly it, untrained. On turning downwind he entered a PIO (Pilot Induced Oscilation). He recovered fine, by cutting engine power and pulling the stick back. On turning final he REALLY lost it, PIO`d again and entered a power push-over at low altitude. It Was unrecoverable, and he went straight down from about 200 feet, and was killed on impact. Vaatjie witnessed the whole thing, and he was in a state of shock.

Afterwards the questions and regrets reared their ugly heads. IF ONLY I did saw the ons prop blade off as I threatened to do numerous times. IF ONLY he would have listened to my sound advice. If only......... I still cry, even now as I am writing this.

At his graveside, I said farewell with a handfull of Namaqualand sand on his coffin. I turned around, walked away, and realized that my youth went with him into that grave......

ET Loftus
1953 - 1997


Postscript: The "designer" had the odacity to send a nice verse from the Bible. He did not attend the funeral.

Sad, sad story Boet and a sad memory to live with

Of all the gifts life can give us, hindsight must be the one to treasure the most. With hindsight, you would have lopped off the rotor. The fact you did not was no fault of yours.

I feel the need to say how I envy the friendship you had with your mate and I envy the good times you had together. I believe your mate is still with you. Not in body perhaps, but he lives on every day in your memories of each other

Go well Boet.

Alles van die beste

Thanks so much for sharing that with us Boet.

Such a pity you lost your friend and I truly empathise with you. I too lost a dear friend, Sean Klopper, in a gyroplane accident in 2006 and although he was a very competent pilot and instructor, faulty assembly of a rotor system by an AP cost him his life. The gyro instruction I do to this day is dedicated to him.

I can only hope that Loffie's death contributed to the safety of Gyro's and helped contribute to the knowledge we have and as a result saves lives.

Sterkte ou swaer!

Len

Boet ek het gedink dat jy Afrikaans was Very well written!

Hats of to you Boet, you just gave part of yourself away with that piece. It was written with such heart.

The "learn from this" bit is one that does need some exploring. Ask yourself at what stage would you intervene and stop one from flying owing to weather, safety or any other issue. I know it is a question I ponder often. So far I have only stopped one pilot from taking off, but there have been more times I have wanted to - problem is that I am a conservative pilot particularly when it comes to weather - so should I be imposing my conservancy on others? The flip side however is exactly where you are - if only....

Thanks Boet - nice piece, and a good topic.

Thanks Boet. I knew Loftus. Met him on a Bundu Bash. Him ariving from VRD in his old trike, with pots and pans hanging below it. What a great and memorable guy he was!

Haai Boet
Dankie vir die meedeel van hierdie tragiese verhhaal. Ek is seker meeste van ons kan daaruit leer en dalk 'n bietjie wyser word
Groete
Andre

Sad story Boet - Thanks for sharing it with us so we can learn

D

Hello Boet,

Sad story, but it raises questions as well

1 It happend in 1997, why you tell the story now what happend in 2009 that it comes up?

2 Who was the designer, it maybe helps to avoid accidents for people who still has it in a shed somewhere?

None of the type exists any more. All have crashed. There were injuries, but my friend was the only fatality. The criminality aspect was, telling my friend to go FLY something that this person KNEW he was NOT trained to fly in. I have kept my silence all these years, and only told it for the lesson in it: LISTEN TO OLDER, MORE EXPERIENCED PILOT`S ADVICE.
We have a saying in Afrikaans: God se meule maal stadig, maar hulle maal seker.

Doe nooit iets waarvan je wenst dat het onbekend blijft

Sad for your loss Boet.

Just a question...why you on about the designer if Loftus was suicidal enough to take to the air in an aircraft he was untrained to fly? Surely as an adult he should know he can't fly it and not listen to people. I would not dream of flying a plane I was untrained in, no matter what the manufacturer or agent says.

AndreB,

Some guys sometimes have more guts than brains. My friend`s enthusiasm for flying sometimes exeeded his abillities. I knew that, so I constantly had to put the reins on him to keep him in check. A lot of things worked together towards what happened that fatefull day. My friend needed the cash. He had an interested buyer for the gyro. I insisted he sell th damn thing, take what he can get for it, count his losses and consider himself lucky to still be alive. The designer insisted otherwise. Fly the gyro, that will increase the value of the aircraft. Who do YOU think he should have listened to?

I hear you Boet. Once again....sorry for the loss, seems like he was a special friend. Maybe we can all learn something here.