Mountain Flying author down

SteveC

"Laconic"
Staff member
AOPA Online article:

"Well-known mountain-flying instructor, lecturer, and author Sparky Imeson was found dead in the wreckage of his Cessna 180 by searchers on Thursday morning, March 19. Two days earlier he had departed Bozeman, Mont., on a one-hour flight to Helena, Mont., but did not arrive at his destination. A radar track of his flight ended about 18 miles north of Bozeman."

Some info on Sparky from his website:

"Sparky Imeson was born and raised in Jackson, Wyoming. He grew up in the mountains where his grandfather homesteaded and he learned to appreciate the mountains "from the ground up." He was bitten by the 'flying bug' in July 1966, and began flying his father's Piper J-3 Cub and Cessna 205. Fueled by a love of flying, Sparky and his parents, Paul and Jennie, started Imeson Aviation, Inc. in 1968, at the Jackson Hole Airport.

< snip >

Sparky became concerned about the number of general aviation accidents that were attributed to mountain flying, and finding no books on the matter, he wrote his own. He received the FAA Northwest Region's Flight Instructor of the Year award in 1974, 1979 and 1995, for providing effective and creative flight and ground instruction. Many of his 20,000+ flight hours have been in small airplanes in the mountains."
 
Wow, that sucks. I positively devoured his mountain flying books and website information when I was a PPL.
 
The wreckage of this aircraft was found by a USAF UH-1N crew from the 40th Rescue flight out of Malmstrom AFB; a unit that doesn't get much rescue work, but did a great job finding him quickly. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the accident were fatal.
 
Very sad. So close to his last crash--wasn't it about a year ago? Rumor is he just got his medical back after recovering from the previous crash.
 
happens, you fly in the sticks long enough and you're bound to put one in, then survival is a roll of the dice.
 
http://www.jhguide.com/article.php?art_id=4384

Pilot was headed to site of ’07 crash

From Staff and Wire Reports
March 21, 2009

The former Jackson resident and expert mountain pilot killed in a crash Tuesday near Helena, Mont., set out that afternoon to take photographs of a site where he was involved in a crash two years ago, his friends said Friday.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board arrived Friday to begin investigating the crash that killed Sparky Imeson, a Helena flight instructor. Imeson was born and raised in Jackson Hole and logged more than 20,000 hours flying airplanes. He and his parents founded Imeson Aviation Inc. in 1968 at Jackson Hole Airport.

Imeson, 64, took off alone from the Bozeman airport at 2:11 p.m. Tuesday. Searchers on Thursday found the wreckage of his Cessna 180 about two miles southwest of the Canyon Ferry airstrip.

Two friends, Gary McDonald and Galen Hanselman, said Imeson had intended to document the site of a 2007 crash in the Elkhorn Mountains in which he was a passenger.

Imeson gave regular presentations on mountain flying and backcountry survival techniques. His friends said he wanted to use the photos in those presentations.

On Sunday, Imeson apparently suffered oxygen depravation on a flight out of Helena.

Flight records from Flightaware.com indicate that during that trip Imeson climbed to an altitude of 24,000 feet, where the air is too thin for humans to survive without supplemental oxygen.

After becoming disoriented, he was talked down to a lower altitude by an air traffic controller in Salt Lake City, McDonald said. Imeson likely had oxygen but could have had a problem with his equipment, he said.

Altitude does not appear to have been a factor in Tuesday’s crash, said NTSB Deputy Regional Chief Debra Eckrote.

“A witness saw the aircraft flying low in the area,” Eckrote said. “It appears he cleared a ridge line and then collided with some trees.

Evidence on site indicates the aircraft hit a couple of trees and then the ground.”

The wreckage, which was spread “over a couple of hundred feet,” will be removed Saturday and taken to a hangar for inspection, Eckrote said.

Montana Aeronautics Division administrator Debbie Alke said Imeson climbed to 6,700 feet on Tuesday before he dropped off the radar.

McDonald speculated that with 40 years of flying experience, Imeson might have had engine trouble or run into some other unexpected problem.

“We know he was up there, he was going to take pictures. He had no trouble up on top in the high country, but he had trouble below,” McDonald said.
 
Actually the article is poorly written. The 24K thing happened a few days before the crash.
 
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