my first thought was how in the heck do you not even think twice about fuel. i would think fuel is the first thing to think about. now coming from a guy (me) who left his wallet on top of his car and lost it twice in my 40 years of driving I'm first to admit these things happen.🤣

Amazing Video all around. Also - great piloting. not trying to turn back to field, apparently already committed to a landing in the field if necessary when trying to restart the engine, stop that in time and land safely. And the biggest part, a pilot that reflects on his errors and shares them with others is so important! As we all should learn in training, there is no room for Ego in flying.

Glad the rebuild is going well. Any chance on making a video of the bungee replacement on wing landing gear?

I hope your goal is the Zenith Homecoming in Sept 🙂 Hope to see you there again this year.

KILLER ITEMS BEFORE FLIGHT:FFTT=Fuel, Flaps, Trim, Transponder, Cycle control surfaces. Post checklist motion BEFORE take-off.

I'm almost convinced we are attracted to conflict or misfortune is in order to increase our imagination of ways of how to respond. So hearing about your accident and humility and responsibility gives us something to learn and model. Glad you are safe. Thank you.

Be careful about rebuilding your plane. Don't repeat the story of JAL 123. when after a bad repair it's tail was torn off mid flight and it's all ended as a crash.

Corvair engines are not to be trusted. Maybe in a pietenpol with a big slow prop. But I know of 3 people that have put a corvair powered plane in.

Thank you for posting this repair. I am so sorry about the incident. What a learning experience this is on sheet metal repairs. I feel after these repairs your plane will be safe to fly. If the AC 43 says three rows of rivets I would go 4. May your plane be airworthy soon.

I did not learn the lesson that distractions can be fatal until it happened to me. While rock climbing, I was tying a rope into my harness, looked down and saw my shoe laces were untied. It's a natural instinct to see your shoes untied and to stop and tie them up so that's what I did. Because of that I forgot to continue to tie the rope into my harness and began to climb with a half-tied knot. I was lucky because after climbing a few metres, my rope detached from my harness and I noticed that immediately and climbed back down. If the rope hadn't detatched itself naturally, I would have surely taken a ground fall. Now I make sure to let nothing distract me from tying my knot. If something urgent comes up, I untie it so I can retie it fully when I'm no longer distracted. I believe pilots need to be trained in dealing with distractions. Maybe instructors need to notice when it happens and ensure the pilot starts their checklist again from item 1.

landing on the wheat field with chassis down.... what can go wrong?) you lucky man, your plane didn't flip upside down with down landing gears

Please consider a less sole crushing music during the fast forward.

This man is definitely not a politician. He spoke the truth all the way from start to finish. The best and most important thing is he lived to tell the story. This is a win-win for him and his family. The plane will be rebuilt and able to be airborne again. Just find the parts and remove and replace. Respect to this man for being a stand up individual. We all will look forward to the rebuild video(s) of this bird. Like a Phoenix, it will rise again and do what it does best. Stay safe and learn from this very important and valuable lesson. 👍 ✈️

I’m sure you have been told you misspelled crashed in your thumbnail

Hey Larry, glad to see that the rebuild will be easier than you thought…. What’s the fuel capacity of those wing tanks that you have?

we learn frm everyones mistakes good too see u not expensive can see u talking tc

Did your insurance cover any of your costs, or are you not filing a claim?

Are we gonna be able to see the whole in cockpit video from the crash? Is there anything we can learn from it?

You must be nutts to try and rebuild these wings, when I haave a friend who has a set ready to go... Ron

You’re lucky your airport had such perfect fields off the runways

Subscribed because of the twins mentioned it

I appreciate your honesty but clearly you had an on board interior camera (as shown at the beginning). Why not post that footage also so we can follow along with your emergency steps?

look bro nows your time to make the channel

That’s a very good video, sir! I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself. I got a question though. With parts and components in aeronautics being frequently held to a very high standard of precision, with little room for deviation from what they were supposed to be to what they actually are, how were you able to verify that what you are keeping on the airplane from after the crash is in fact safe to stay in the airplane? I’m curious to understand what the process was like for assessing damages that are near impossible to see with the naked eye.

very helpful and thankyou for sharing everything. i hope you get you plane up and running asap! good luck and fly safe!

So glad your ok. Thanks for being honest. Hopefully it will help many more people avoid this.

I guess the best thing about a forced landing in a grassy farm field (besides the usual soft landing) is the farmer almost always has heavy machinery about to help you extract your damaged bird. But I gotta ask - given that soooooooooooooo many accidents are due to fuel starvation/incorrect fuel draw settings, why wouldn't you double/triple check this each and every time? Is it even wise to have an empty tank in the first place? It's certainly not going to help your balance.

Dude!! I literally just found your channel, but I just wanted to say as a fellow aviator and former airplane owner, I appreciate your transparency and your honesty! I should have said first of all super stoked that your well and you weren’t hurt or at least it doesn’t look like you were four minutes into your video. Good for you my brother aloha

I remember how I learned not to stop a checklist in the middle. And thank god wasn’t as bad as your story. I was doing the start up checklist, and suddenly a heavy rain started. And decided to wait 10 minutes to pass. And when I continued the checklist to turn on the airplane, I continue where I stopped, but skipped the point where i stopped. Mixture full rich. And of course, the plane didn’t start. So i only had to go through the shame of feeling like a dumbass not being able to turn on the plane. But it taught me a lesson, if a checklist is not finished, and something stops you. Start over. I’m glad that you’re ok.

It takes a lot for a man to admit his mistakes. This guy is awesome. He didn't blame it on anyone, but himself. Good luck with the rebuild.

Why leave with no fuel 😢

Glad you're alive brother. Fly safe!

Well done buddy

I am kinda shocked that a checklist is needed to check the fuel in your airplane, I presume most people do that automatically in cars let alone planes. Is your tank 100L in your lightweight plane so you fly for two weeks without refueling? Am glad you are okay ofc :)

Great composure! I would like to ask a question which I do not see in the comments... Would a belly landing not have been better in a place like a wheat field or would the outcome be the same or worst, especially taking in consideration the damage to the plane?

Larry, I’m curious, did you have to compensate the land owner for damage to the field or crop?

And this is why you always fuel up when you’re done flying, so the next time you fly you can’t make this same mistake. Take the extra hour or less to get fuel and don’t be a cheap bastard. Lucky for him it’s a cheap experimental with good parts availability. Any other certified plane would have been 10X the cost to fix and just a right off.

I love how honest and open you were! Could you post the entire video from the time you hit the throttle for take-off through the crash? Seeing how you responded to each thing that happened would be interesting and educational. Thanks for considering!

derp

Well, one thing I know is we’re all humans and we make mistakes. I appreciate your honesty and sharing your story. I hope your able to fly again soon. Take care and safe flying!

I'm confused on why the fuel tank is switched *after* the run-up. Typically we do our run-up on the tank we intend to takeoff with. As a result of us taking our time checking our mags at a higher RPM, we're also making sure that any fuel contaminants we may have missed on our preflight are gonna be dealt with on our run-up. On another topic, I always fly with my devices on Do not disturb, maybe add it as a part of your preflight. Happy your safe and the plane is rebuildable!

Why are you taking off with an empty tank??

Doesn’t the FAA have to give you permission to move the airplane??

Kudos to you sir, thanks for this video, very informative.

Question: Do you have an emergency parachute on board? Would that have been an alternative? With less damage? Such incredible mistakes can happen, but thankfully rarely.... I was a glider pilot and then I have been flying paragliders for over 30 years. You often chat with people at the launch site or are otherwise disturbed. Starting without hooking in is fatal, which is practically impossible when paragliding. But it rarely happens when hang gliding. Unfortunately, it happened once in my flying area... fatal. I myself noticed that after about 25 years of experience I became more sloppy, I could always correct mistakes, etc., then I clearly noticed the effects of my sloppiness and went back to carrying out the "checklists" very precisely...

Wow! I’m glad you are ok. Things can be replaced or fixed. 👍

Unfortunately all the best lessons are expensive and school of hard knocks.

I thought it was a basic to fill the tanks whenever you fly. Is that wrong? Genuine question.

I shit miself……nightmare

The real question is you were flying the plane before with two minutes of fuel The last time you used it. 😬