Sad ending for a commercial pilot, his son, and an Aeronoca

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

I saw the following video yesterday (3/11/23) -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWBuRXrTTNw

I saw the grass strip and immediately recognized this as 2TE2 in Beford TX.

I've been there. I had covered the Fort Worth 99's Pancake Breakfast and there was an Aeronca there (N1128E). I had to go check my video, and it's not the one I saw, but very similar. See 1:09 in the below video. At 2:27 in my video I think is another Aeronca or similar airplane. As it lifts off you can see a definite difference in how the two departed, the crashed Areonca was very sluggish. The aircraft in my video also had two aboard. The Aeronca in my video takes off and does a fly by at 3:40. It also does a nice lift-off and has no problem climbing out. I don't recall the exact temperature, but I do remember it was a warm day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k8u4-hdixU

Some comments made in the crash video say that the engine sounded rough. I agree it does soudn rough in the video, but as some others point out, this could be just poor audio from the video. Other comments state that the 65hp engine in the Areonca is a slow turning 4 cylinder, so it just sounds that way.

Reading more of the comments and preliminary investigation, the plane was over weight by somewhere around 225Lbs. Density altitude was 2,600ft. The grass strip at 2TE2 is at 720ft.

Some speculate that the son was at the controls as upon the initial attempt, comments were made that the plane almost went into a ground loop. Note also that at the 11 second mark of lift off the Areonca is bounced into the air into ground effect instead of a normal liftoff like at 2:45 in my video. Once off the ground, the Aeronca didn't seem to climb well at all and the nose appears to be a little high. The plane was reported to be in excellent condition. As the plane departed (not in the video), witnesses report that the right wing dipped abruptly, followed by a sharp left which put the plane into an unrecoverable spin.

Was this possibly a commercial pilot that was over-confident in his abilities? Very sad, both he and his son did not survive the crash.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

I saw the following video yesterday (3/11/23) -



I saw the grass strip and immediately recognized this as 2TE2 in Beford TX.

I've been there. I had covered the Fort Worth 99's Pancake Breakfast and there was an Aeronca there (N1128E). I had to go check my video, and it's not the one I saw, but very similar. See 1:09 in the below video. At 2:27 in my video I think is another Aeronca or similar airplane. As it lifts off you can see a definite difference in how the two departed, the crashed Areonca was very sluggish. The aircraft in my video also had two aboard. The Aeronca in my video takes off and does a fly by at 3:40. It also does a nice lift-off and has no problem climbing out. I don't recall the exact temperature, but I do remember it was a warm day.



Some comments made in the crash video say that the engine sounded rough. I agree it does soudn rough in the video, but as some others point out, this could be just poor audio from the video. Other comments state that the 65hp engine in the Areonca is a slow turning 4 cylinder, so it just sounds that way.

Reading more of the comments and preliminary investigation, the plane was over weight by somewhere around 225Lbs. Density altitude was 2,600ft. The grass strip at 2TE2 is at 720ft.

Some speculate that the son was at the controls as upon the initial attempt, comments were made that the plane almost went into a ground loop. Note also that at the 11 second mark of lift off the Areonca is bounced into the air into ground effect instead of a normal liftoff like at 2:45 in my video. Once off the ground, the Aeronca didn't seem to climb well at all and the nose appears to be a little high. The plane was reported to be in excellent condition. As the plane departed (not in the video), witnesses report that the right wing dipped abruptly, followed by a sharp left which put the plane into an unrecoverable spin.

Was this possibly a commercial pilot that was over-confident in his abilities? Very sad, both he and his son did not survive the crash.