Guy Maher Gone West

Ted

Ted

The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
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Oct 9, 2007
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iFlyNothing
@Guy Maher was a member here but I only saw him on here once or twice. I knew him from the Twin Cessna world, where he was a wealth of knowledge. The man had been flying for something over 40 years and over 20,000 hours of total time, flying Twin Cessnas for Cessna when they were new, and he also flew EMS helicopters. He was a very good and also conservative pilot who didn't push weather or other conditions. His 310B (one of the nicest classic 310s out there) was destroyed in a hangar fire and he had replaced it with a 310Q a couple years ago. He was exactly the person you never expected to die in a crash. Aviation has suffered a great loss, he will be missed.
 
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Hasn't been a good few days for aviation. We had two crashes in TX, two in NC, and of course the flying wing in CA. Airplane crashes are only good for the media. I know at least 10 people died in the planes I just mentioned. 10 people dying in 2 days in 3 cars would never make the national news, but if it's an airplane, suddenly planes are falling from the skies.

Sorry for you loss @Ted DuPuis Unfortunately the aviation world is small and those of us that have been in it a long time have known people who didn't make it.
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
Unfortunately the pilot of the second crash was a friend of mine.

@Guy Maher was a member here but I only saw him on here once or twice. I knew him from the Twin Cessna world, where he was a wealth of knowledge. The man had been flying for something over 40 years and over 20,000 hours of total time, flying Twin Cessnas for Cessna when they were new, and he also flew EMS helicopters. He was a very good and also conservative pilot who didn't push weather or other conditions. His 310B (one of the nicest classic 310s out there) was destroyed in a hangar fire and he had replaced it with a 310Q a couple years ago. He was exactly the person you never expected to die in a crash. Aviation has suffered a great loss, he will be missed.
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Sorry for your loss. From what I hear he was a stand up guy. Doubt we will ever find out what happened. Who would think that a 15 minute hop could turn deadly halfway through.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Unfortunately the pilot of the second crash was a friend of mine.

@Guy Maher was a member here but I only saw him on here once or twice. I knew him from the Twin Cessna world, where he was a wealth of knowledge. The man had been flying for something over 40 years and over 20,000 hours of total time, flying Twin Cessnas for Cessna when they were new, and he also flew EMS helicopters. He was a very good and also conservative pilot who didn't push weather or other conditions. His 310B (one of the nicest classic 310s out there) was destroyed in a hangar fire and he had replaced it with a 310Q a couple years ago. He was exactly the person you never expected to die in a crash. Aviation has suffered a great loss, he will be missed.
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Guy? Really? He regularly put on a safety clinic for Cardinal Flyers Online. http://www.laniermedia.com/cardinal-safety-clinic.html
 
Lowflynjack said:
Sorry for you loss @Ted DuPuis Unfortunately the aviation world is small and those of us that have been in it a long time have known people who didn't make it.
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Very true. Although I've known people who've died in plane crashes, I think Guy marks the first person I call a friend who died in one. A lot of friends have been dying the past couple of years - I suppose that's part of hitting your mid 30s.

Grum.Man said:
Sorry for your loss. From what I hear he was a stand up guy. Doubt we will ever find out what happened. Who would think that a 15 minute hop could turn deadly halfway through.
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Guy was definitely a stand up guy. I also have no doubt that he took that flight as seriously as he took any other flight. He once said he always reminds himself that everyone who died in a crash felt as good as he did before taking off. He was a professional and acted as such.

I agree we probably won't find out what happened.
 
I saw the initial post on Beech Talk about Guy. Very sad to hear this news. I had a very nice and lengthy conversation just a week and a half ago about my transition training for the commander and my accident last year. Guy emphasized emergency procedures and how my accident was handled and what I experienced.

I’m so very sorry, and saddened for his family’s loss.
 
Grum.Man said:
Sorry for your loss. From what I hear he was a stand up guy. Doubt we will ever find out what happened. Who would think that a 15 minute hop could turn deadly halfway through.
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Surprised about this accident, short flight, real easy terrain and the weather at that time was CAVU. I live right there by Twin Lakes Airport
Something else must have come into play


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Also the Fullerton cra
Lowflynjack said:
Hasn't been a good few days for aviation. We had two crashes in TX, two in NC, and of course the flying wing in CA. Airplane crashes are only good for the media. I know at least 10 people died in the planes I just mentioned. 10 people dying in 2 days in 3 cars would never make the national news, but if it's an airplane, suddenly planes are falling from the skies.

Sorry for you loss @Ted DuPuis Unfortunately the aviation world is small and those of us that have been in it a long time have known people who didn't make it.
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Also the3 Fullerton Duke crash this week. A lot of bad crashes and a lot of twins this week.
 
That is sad to hear and I am sorry for your loss.

I attended one of Guy's Cardinal seminars about 15 years ago, he was an incredible source of knowledge and as has been said, conservative and safety conscious. The notes from that course are still sitting next to me on the shelf in my office and are the basis of many of the techniques that I use in my aircraft today.
 
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Not easy to loose a friend, always sad to loose a pilot. RIP
 
From Guy, via Cardinal Flyers

“Finally, might it help to reflect on what your close friend would say to you if he knew you were struggling with your flying future over his tragic accident? I can say with absolute certainty that if anything like that ever happened to me in an aircraft, I'd tell anybody who was feeling like you are to take take whatever happened, learn from it, change what bothers you about your risk management as a result, then go out and continue to enjoy one of the greatest gifts God ever gave us - the freedom of flight.”
 
Ted, very sorry for your loss. And condolences to his family and friends. Terrible loss.
 
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PeterNSteinmetz said:
From Guy, via Cardinal Flyers

“Finally, might it help to reflect on what your close friend would say to you if he knew you were struggling with your flying future over his tragic accident? I can say with absolute certainty that if anything like that ever happened to me in an aircraft, I'd tell anybody who was feeling like you are to take take whatever happened, learn from it, change what bothers you about your risk management as a result, then go out and continue to enjoy one of the greatest gifts God ever gave us - the freedom of flight.”
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I've been having those sorts of thoughts myself and thinking about some changes I'd make in my risk mitigation, but of course we need to know more to understand better what happened first and I don't want to make too many speculations other than to say Guy was literally the last person I would have expected to die in a plane crash. I rank him lower than I rank myself even, and that is something to consider.

The Kathryn's report link for the crash:

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/04/express-series-2000-n625j-fatal.html
 
We've probably all known pilots we knew were going to crash. It's the guys we knew never would that are tough to swallow. Incidentally, beautiful to see him being baptized last year. He is at peace. My sincere condolences to his friends and family.
 
When I heard "experimental" I imagined a freshly-built E/AB, but this one was issued a certificate in 2005.
 
mryan75 said:
We've probably all known pilots we knew were going to crash. It's the guys we knew never would that are tough to swallow. Incidentally, beautiful to see him being baptized last year. He is at peace. My sincere condolences to his friends and family.
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That's the thing with Guy. Like I said, he was the absolute last person I would've expected. Just about all pilots pilots (including myself) I can list a handful of weak areas that I could see leading to a crash at some point under the right circumstances. This goes for private pilots on up through retired airline captains. I never flew with Guy, but with him there weren't any weak areas I ever identified in knowing him for around 8 years.

Kenny Phillips said:
When I heard "experimental" I imagined a freshly-built E/AB, but this one was issued a certificate in 2005.
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Certainly it's got some history to it. That type has had structural failures, but you'd think that with that number of years that anything major would've already happened if it was going to. However not out of the question. A bird strike is always possible that he may have been unable to do much about. There are a lot of times I worry about that when flying around at low altitude, which he probably was on a short hop like that.

I'll be very curious to read the NTSB prelim when it comes out.
 
azure said:
Indeed, this is quite a shock... :( :(

(And unless I'm confusing him with someone else, he brokered many good deals for CFO members.)
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You probably aren't confusing him with someone else. Guy was very active in the Cardinal world as well as the Twin Cessna world.
 
Yes, I'm definitely not confused, Ted. I checked the CFO Digest after posting that, and there are several emails where he says he is acting as an agent for someone selling their bird.

And the last issue of the Digest had a post Sad News from Keith and Paul about his accident. I had just not had time to even glance through the issue...

I'm very sorry to hear of this... a tragic loss. :(
 
Of course, he was at that age (where many of us now tread) where a medical situation isn't out of the realm of possibilities. (Though a local tow-plane driver's crash a couple of decades ago was ruled "pilot error", everyone actually assumed he had a stroke or heart attack. No evidence of that, however; and there isn't always conclusive evidence.)
 
There are so many possibilities we will likely never know the true cause. From my understanding there wasn’t much left for the FAA to examine. Not sure how familiar he was with the airplane. I’ve heard the airplane hadn’t flown much due to the owners age. The fact that the wreckage was near his home could mean a maneuvering mistake, possible stall spin. Just a bad situation for all involved. Seems a bug void has been created in a lot of people’s hearts as well as his community.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Of course, he was at that age (where many of us now tread) where a medical situation isn't out of the realm of possibilities. (Though a local tow-plane driver's crash a couple of decades ago was ruled "pilot error", everyone actually assumed he had a stroke or heart attack. No evidence of that, however; and there isn't always conclusive evidence.)
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That thought has crossed my mind, and while he had a valid medical (to my knowledge) he was a bit overweight. If there's nothing found to indicate a structural failure (assuming there's enough of the wreckage to identify at all), that would be my guess. If he had a badly timed bird strike, that's another possibility and not much you can do about.

Grum.Man said:
There are so many possibilities we will likely never know the true cause. From my understanding there wasn’t much left for the FAA to examine. Not sure how familiar he was with the airplane. I’ve heard the airplane hadn’t flown much due to the owners age. The fact that the wreckage was near his home could mean a maneuvering mistake, possible stall spin. Just a bad situation for all involved. Seems a bug void has been created in a lot of people’s hearts as well as his community.
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All possible, and we'll never know. I don't think Guy flew experimentals a whole lot, so it's possible he had less familiarity with the plane. I can't see him flying something that he wasn't comfortable flying, but I also don't know the relationship with him and that plane and the owner.
 
Damn. Just damn. I talked with him a few times about Cardinals years ago and he was so knowledgable and really helpful. Reading some of his stuff, he really did seem like he took flying serious and did the training. Like others have said, he would be one of the last pilots I would ever think would crash. But if it was something out of his control, and your time is up, there isnt much you can do. Damn.
 
Given the listed damage and crater depth, it may be difficult to discern whether anything was wrong with the pilot at the time of the crash.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Given the listed damage and crater depth, it may be difficult to discern whether anything was wrong with the pilot at the time of the crash.
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Yeah, I'm thinking the same. We'll probably never know the details. However if they say "pilot error" I'm going to say most likely is he suffered incapacitation of some sort.
 
I know this thread is a little old, but just found it and just joined to post. Also just found out about the crash. Like someone else said; "damn, just damn" Guy was my SEL flight instructor back in the late 80's and also a member of my church in NC at that time. Saw the thoughts about never knowing what might have happened and all true indeed. I did some digging and found an incident report about the aircraft. Being new I cannot post the link since I do not have 5 posts yet. Do a search on ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 73174. It shows substantial damage to the fuselage and other components - in 2004.
 
Jim Lewis said:
I know this thread is a little old, but just found it and just joined to post. Also just found out about the crash. Like someone else said; "damn, just damn" Guy was my SEL flight instructor back in the late 80's and also a member of my church in NC at that time. Saw the thoughts about never knowing what might have happened and all true indeed. I did some digging and found an incident report about the aircraft. Being new I cannot post the link since I do not have 5 posts yet. Do a search on ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 73174. It shows substantial damage to the fuselage and other components - in 2004.
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Even after such a long time I feel deeply the loss... I also know that this thread isn't a new one, but we shouldn't forget about such things.
 
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