Blue Moon down in Grand Praire TX

Very sad. Looks like things went south immediately after takeoff.

Stopping at the Starbucks next door to that Sonic was part of my "going to fly ritual" when I was training at GPM in 2007.
 
I stop at that Starbucks after about half of my flights. From the flight tracker it looks like he was trying to depart from runway 17 and turned to the west (right). Must have had engine trouble and was trying to make it back to land although it is normally a left traffic pattern off 17. He may have been trying to land on the hwy 360 service road but struck either a telephone pole or wire before going down. Tragic. RIP
 
Being the pedant I am, I shall point out the aircraft was a Wheeler Express, not a ''Blue Moon''. That's the name of the LLC which owned the aircraft.
 
3393RP said:
Being the pedant I am, I shall point out the aircraft was a Wheeler Express, not a ''Blue Moon''. That's the name of the LLC which owned the aircraft.
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It's the name of the llc that built the wheeler. They became the manufacturer. Had since been sold. Sad. Always liked wheelers but they never took off.
 
Racerx said:
It's the name of the llc that built the wheeler. They became the manufacturer. Had since been sold. Sad. Always liked wheelers but they never took off.
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The Wheeler design went through several owners and configuration changes. The CAFE flight test report on the aircraft pointed to some spooky flight characteristics and the pilot who flew those tests recommended the design's quirks be investigated by a trained test pilot wearing a chute. The aircraft seemed to have an unusually high accident rate given the number flying.

Those things probably killed its chances. It coulda' been a contender.
 
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