News media: "The pilot was the only person on-board during the crash, and there were no other reports of injuries. The sheriff's office said he has been flying since his military service during the Vietnam War."
Thanks Carl for the report. Inflight fire every Pilots nightmare. I'm glad the outcome was not tragic.
There was a similar accident with an RV8 N41VA 20 years ago. This was also in Oregon. Total catastrophic engine failure and fire, heat so intense pilot bailed out without a chute and perished.
Owner's name is apparently Eugene Michael. The preliminary NTSB report states serious injury, so let's hope he is doing well.
When Mr. Michael is back on his feet, I'd like to ask some questions relating to the fire and the airframe. If you know him, please pass along the request.
I deleted two posts for not adhering to VAF Posting Rule #2: Threads SPECULATING about the causes of a crash/incident before the Probable Cause document is issued are not allowed here. Please stick to the facts, Friends.
The pilot is interviewed in this video and explains what happened. Towards the end it is reported that he thinks the it started with an "oil problem." Hopefully his willingness to discuss the accident continues and we can all learn from it.
One lesson taken from this - the emergency canopy eject mechanism is useful for egress in ground (or ground proximity) emergency. This is the reason I fully installed / activated this mechanism, based on exactly this argument made by someone on the forum.
Certainly very happy he is OK with only minor injuries, the most important part.
Of course this is of great interest to all of us in RV community, specially those with the 14. I will be very interested to find the root cause, an electrical fire or a fire that took the electric part out first.