Steve Deleo Killed in Dragonfly Accident

[Ashley Groves]

This is a tough post for me. I was flying regularly with Steve before my move to Maryland.

Although he lived a few thousand miles away I thought that some people over here may have known Steve, as he was an avid hang glider pilot for over 30 years, Master rated, US salesman for Flight Designs (rigid wings) and Aeros. I understand he spent many years in Colorado previously.

Steve was one of those guys who had bundles of enthusiasm and a dancing spark in his eyes that was tempered with a sound understanding of so many facets of this sport. He was a constant source of knowledge and creativity that gave so much to me and many other pilots. I met him when I was a fresh H4 and he showed me much about the sport and still had much to give when I moved away.

It is hard to beleive he is gone.

I have enclosed a qoute from Kenny Brown of Moyes America. I am sure we will hear more details once the investigation is complete. The accident occured in Northern California, outside of Brentwood on the Delta Plains.

"On Saturday the 28th of October, Steve wheeled Kevin's Dragonfly out of the hanger and was going to take it for the first flight before towing for the day. He had had numerous flights on the plane. He had a low speed hop/bounce take-off and then a full power shallow climb out to 100' approx where he then dove straight into the ground at full throttle. Killed instantly.

Kevin reported that after the hop/bounce that he observed Steve waiving his left/throttle hand and moving around in the seat.

The wreckage was taken away by the local sheriffs office. Rehtt is in the area and will possibly have a chance to check the wreckage this weekend." - Kenny Brown as quoted from the OZ report.

[mcelrah]

Ashley,
I'm really sorry to hear of your friend Steve's death.

What follows may be a question that Joe Gregor can answer if he's lurking on this forum: where does the local sheriff's office get off moving wreckage from the site? In studying for the FAA weight-shift control land (trike) check ride, I'm reading that we are supposed to preserve the wreckage as much as possible so that AVIATION accident investigators can try to draw some conclusions. Does NTSB get involved accidents of these "heavy ultralite"/ soon to be light sport aircraft - or not?

Hugh