I'm sorry to put bad news out there in our homebuilt aviation community, but I have to report that my good friend Tom Hastings and three members of his family were lost today in the crash of his homebuilt aircraft, a Cirrus VK-30 pusher, near Agua Dulce, CA.
We know very very little at this moment about the circumstances of the crash. There was no post-crash fire, and the photos of the crash site do not support any notion of the aircraft breaking up or coming apart at altitude.
Although the crash was only 2 miles away from L70 airport in Agua Dulce, the location of the crash does not support the idea that he was attemptiing to land at that airport.
Tom was a friend and longtime fellow EAA chapter 40 member, an accomplished engineer who was a senior machine designer at the HAAS Automation CNC machine company. Tom was a Vietnam veteran, a former hang glider pilot, and had built the VK-30 himself over the course of 9 or 10 years. Tom had flown hundreds of Young Eagles in the Cirrus.
If there is interest among the HBA community, I will post relevant information about the cause of the crash whenever it becomes available.
We know very very little at this moment about the circumstances of the crash. There was no post-crash fire, and the photos of the crash site do not support any notion of the aircraft breaking up or coming apart at altitude.
Although the crash was only 2 miles away from L70 airport in Agua Dulce, the location of the crash does not support the idea that he was attemptiing to land at that airport.
Tom was a friend and longtime fellow EAA chapter 40 member, an accomplished engineer who was a senior machine designer at the HAAS Automation CNC machine company. Tom was a Vietnam veteran, a former hang glider pilot, and had built the VK-30 himself over the course of 9 or 10 years. Tom had flown hundreds of Young Eagles in the Cirrus.
If there is interest among the HBA community, I will post relevant information about the cause of the crash whenever it becomes available.
