Hawaii Tribune-Herald: Sat, January 17, 2009
At first light today, a search will continue for a missing 17-meter white glider that was last seen Friday afternoon atop the slopes of Mauna Kea.
County Fire Chief Darryl Oliveira said at least one person was aboard the glider when it went missing. Oliveira said he thought the flier might be a resident in a privately owned craft.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported the missing glider to the Fire Department around 5 p.m., Oliveira said, adding the craft was supposed to return to the Waimea-Kohala Airport around 3 p.m., after flying over both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The last communication with the pilot was around 2 p.m., he said.
Air searches Friday were conducted by Pohakuloa Training Area, the fire department and the Coast Guard, Oliveira said, adding Saturday's search will likely include Civil Air Patrol and private operators volunteering their services.
Honolulu Star Bulletin: Saturday, Jan 17, 2009
Byline: Robert Shikina
Search crews found today the wreckage of a glider that was reported missing yesterday during an attempt to set a altitude record near the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island, officials said.
It is assumed the pilot, 69-year-old Dave Bigelow, didn't survive the crash, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.
According to friends and witnesses, Bigelow, a Kamuela resident, was piloting his glider near Mauna Kea in an effort to set a high altitude record and was scheduled to land at Waimea-Kohala Airport after the flight yesterday afternoon, the Coast Guard said in a news release.
He was last heard from at about 2 p.m. and reported missing yesterday evening.
A Coast Guard C-130, the Hawaii Fire Department, Civil Air Patrol, and volunteers joined in the search today. "Search crews found the wreckage at 1:06 (p.m.) Hawaii time," Gregor said. "It was located in a lava field at 7,800 feet altitude on the side of Mauna Loa. The glider was destroyed and it's assumed that the pilot, who was the only person on board, was killed."
He said crews saw the wreckage from the air and were not yet able to get to the site.
FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Gregor said.
Winds were at 55 mph at one point and made it difficult for a ground search, said Coast Guard spokesman Michael De Nyse.
Bigelow was a former Air Force fighter pilot, flying the F-102, and a retired commercial airline pilot for Continental Airlines and Aloha Airlines.
Honolulu Star Bulletin: Sunday, Jan 18, 2009
Byline: Rob Shikina
For more than a year, Big Island resident Dave Bigelow made plans for the moment wind and weather conditions would allow him to sail his glider at 40,000 feet.
On Friday, he believed that day had come.
"It was probably the most perfect day and he was just bouncing with excitement," said his friend and fellow glider pilot Woodson Woods. "He said, 'this is the big one.' He was always going to go up to 40,000 feet."
Bigelow was towed into the air in his single-seat Glaser-Dirks DG-400 glider from the Waimea-Kohala Airport and radioed his friends shortly before 1 p.m.
"I'm at 28,000-feet and I'm going over to Mauna Loa to catch the Mauna Loa wave," he said to Woods, referring to an updraft above the volcano well-known to glider pilots.
Friends never heard from him again and reported him missing that evening at 6:20 p.m.
Searchers found what appeared to be glider wreckage at the 7,800-foot altitude on the side of Mauna Loa at 1:06 p.m. yesterday, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
But the high winds prevented them from reaching the site to confirm it was Bigelow's glider.
"It may or may not be until we get some confirmation," said Big Island Battalion Chief Raymond Rowe. "There's a lot of debris on our mountains from old crashes way back. What this one is has to be determined by putting somebody on the ground."
The debris was located within Volcanoes National Park, he said. Rescuers will try to drop search crews at the site this morning, Rowe said.
Bigelow, a retired Air Force captain who flew F-102 fighter jets in Vietnam, had been researching his routes and testing his equipment for a year to prepare for the record-setting flight, friends said.
"He was just very well-prepared in anything he did," said Woods, president of the Mauna Kea Soaring club, of which Bigelow is a member. "It's just a mystery to us. As a pilot, what we call a good stick, he was one of the best."
Bigelow had broken the state's high altitude record for a glider set by Woods back in 1969. In that flight last April, he sailed without engine power at 33,500 feet, higher than Mauna Kea. Bigelow posted online a video of his record-breaking flight in which he is seen scraping ice off the inside of his cockpit with a credit card.
After serving eight years in the Air Force, Bigelow worked as a commercial pilot for Continental Airlines and later Aloha Airlines. Bigelow, known as "father bird" by his wife, had been flying gliders since the late 1970s, taking his two sons and wife on flights from Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia, son Dan Bigelow said. His father moved to the Big Island after retiring.
Bigelow also built his own ultralight planes and flew his DG-400 glider almost every week, his son said.
Bigelow said his father compared big-mountain wave riding to surfers searching for the world's biggest ocean waves.
"He could tell like a good sailor or a surfer (when) the good surf conditions come together," he said.
Dan Bigelow left his Maui home yesterday to help with the search and join his mother on the Big Island.
"We're aware of the possibility, but optimistic," he said. "We're nervous."
Anyone with information about Bigelow's whereabouts or who saw his glider in the air is asked to call the joint command center at 535-3333.
Hawaii Tribune-Herald: Monday, Jan 19, 2009
Byline: Bret Yager, Staff Writer
[Expansion of earlier AP report]
Wreckage and human remains found within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park have been conclusively identified as a missing glider and its pilot, David Lyman Bigelow, who vanished on a circuit of the island's peaks on Friday.
Park rangers arrived by helicopter at the crash site at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, making a return at first light to the wreckage spotted from the air Saturday afternoon just before clouds rolled in and obscured the site.
Located at the 9,800-foot level on the slopes of Mauna Loa three miles south of Red Hill Cabin, the wreckage of Bigelow's Glaser-Dirks DG-400 glider was strewn across an 'a'a lava field.
Two rangers were able to recover the remains and do preliminary surveys of the crash site before 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts, clouds and sulfur dioxide gas forced them to leave the area around mid-morning. They planned to return early this morning to continue documenting the scene and to search for any additional debris.
Bigelow's remains were transported to Hilo Medical Center. An autopsy is pending.
The air was thin, dry and cold at the 9,800-foot level, park spokeswoman Mardi Lane said. Rangers who picked their way through sharp, unstable lava had to stay on the lookout for dehydration and acute altitude sickness.
The rangers are working in conjunction with the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash. However, NTSB officials were not yet on the mountain Sunday, Lane said.
"The rangers on the ground were able to do the most important thing: recover the victim," Lane said. "We didn't want to put others at risk. We have (today) to continue."
Bigelow, 69, of Waimea was a retired Air Force captain, former commercial airline pilot and member of the Mauna Kea Soaring Club, which identifies itself on its Web site as "a small group of soaring enthusiasts" based out of the Waimea-Kohala Airport.
Bigelow set a state altitude record for a glider by flying to 33,500 feet last April. He was trying to beat that record Friday when he and the glider went missing.
Bigelow's friend and fellow glider pilot Woodson Woods said Bigelow had been planning for more than a year for the moment that wind and weather would allow him to sail his glider at 40,000 feet.
"It was probably the most perfect day and he was just bouncing with excitement," Woods said. "He said, 'This is the big one.' He was always going to go up to 40,000 feet."
Bigelow was towed into the air from the Waimea-Kohala Airport and radioed his friends shortly before 1 p.m.
"I'm at 28,000 feet and I'm going over to Mauna Loa to catch the Mauna Loa wave," Bigelow said to Woods, referring to an updraft above the volcano well-known to glider pilots.
Multiple agencies joined in the search, including the U.S. Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, the Hawaii County Fire Department and citizen volunteers.
Bigelow is survived by his wife, two sons, and four grandchildren.
"He was smart, I'd say brilliant," said his wife, Patty. "And he wanted to help people do the best they could. He respected people and they respected him back."
Honolulu Advertiser: Tuesday, Jan 20, 2009
Byline Christie Wilson, Staff Writer
Like a big-wave surfer anticipating the next winter swell, retired Aloha Airlines pilot David Bigelow was giddy on the morning of his final flight as it became apparent the conditions were ideal for a record-breaking attempt to reach an altitude of 40,000 feet in his single-seat DG-400 sailplane.
Bigelow, 69, had spent months meticulously preparing for the unpowered flight that would lift off Friday morning from the Waimea-Kohala Airport, according to son Dan Bigelow, 44, who lives in Ha'iku, Maui.
"He knew that would be the day," his son said.
The elder Bigelow had nearly 50 years of pilot training and experience to call on and left nothing to chance. In the six weeks leading up to Friday's attempt, he had flown a total of 92 hours in his sailplane, and in the preceding months had pored over weather and air current charts on his computer.
After setting a new state altitude record for gliders of 33,531 feet in April, Bigelow went even higher, to 33,600 feet, a couple months ago - about 4,500 feet higher than the summit of Mount Everest.
"Everybody should realize this was an intentional and scientific undertaking. He understood the dangers," Dan Bigelow said.
Family members and friends believe Bigelow caught the "big wave" on his final ascent and was carried to record-breaking altitudes before his sailplane mysteriously spiraled back to Earth and broke apart in midair, leaving a 7- to 10-mile path of debris across a barren lava flow at the 9,800-foot elevation of Mauna Loa.
The pilot's remains were recovered Sunday by National Park Service rangers.
Dan Bigelow and others speculate his father likely suffered a problem with his oxygen supply and fell unconscious, a comforting scenario for his family.
"If he did black out, I can't think of a better way," Bigelow said. "It's like he got to 40,000 feet and God said, 'You're close enough so I'll take you from here.' "
David Bigelow was an Air Force fighter pilot during the Vietnam War who joined Continental/Air Micronesia in 1968. He began flying for Aloha Airlines in 1984 and, while living in Windward O'ahu, took up hang-gliding from the cliffs above Makapu'u. Bigelow also designed and built his own flex-wing hang gliders and ultralight aircraft and became enamored with sail- planes, flying out of Dillingham Airfield in Mokul''ia.
After a career spent in the cockpit of big, loud jets, Bigelow savored the solitude and quiet of piloting the sleek, engineless gliders, according to his son.
"It's more of an artful type of flying. Once you're released you have to find your lift," Dan Bigelow said. "The only sound you hear is the wind through the wings. There's no fuel, no engine, no noise. He loved it."
Bigelow retired in 1990, moving to Waimea, where he built a home with his wife, Patty.
As a longtime pilot, Bigelow was expert at interpreting shearlines and other weather formations, and was familiar with the air currents, or "waves," that flow up and around large mountains, his son said. He also knew that some of the world's biggest "waves" are generated around the volcanoes on the Big Island.
On Friday morning, while the rest of the state was bracing for a potentially destructive wind storm, Bigelow was towed into the air for what was expected to be a five- to six-hour flight. Several glider pilots who had gone up ahead of him radioed Bigelow with information on the conditions.
He spoke with Patty twice during the flight, the last time at 11:30 a.m. to tell her he was at 18,000 feet over Hualalai volcano, where he planned to catch "the wave" to the taller Mauna Kea.
"He went up, up, up in the elevator. He was looking for the big wave," Dan Bigelow said.
At 1 p.m., Bigelow radioed his Mauna Kea Soaring Club buddies on the ground that he was at 28,000 feet and headed toward Mauna Loa, whose updrafts would carry him even higher. He reported he was riding the wave at 1,000 feet per minute, "an incredible rate" of ascent, according to his son.
At some point, Bigelow put on an oxygen mask that prevented him from speaking on his radio, but he continued to communicate through a series of microphone clicks.
Then the clicks stopped.
Authorities were notified at 6:20 p.m. that Bigelow was missing.
Dan Bigelow said they are hoping to find the sailplane's flight recorder to verify its ultimate altitude.
"He got out of the party at the high point. He was at the top of his game," his son said. "He did it with style and caught the big wave to where he wanted to go."
In addition to his love of flying, David Bigelow was a "computer geek" and avid surfer, kayaker, diver and sailor, according to his son.
A service is planned for 2 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Waiki'i Community Clubhouse in Waimea.
The crash is being investigated by national park rangers and the National Transportation Safety Board.
The last fatal sailplane accident in Hawai'i occurred on April 6, 2005, when a for-hire sightseeing flight crashed near Dillingham Airfield, killing the pilot and injuring two passengers.
Star Bulletin, Apr 27, 2010
Byline: Leila Fujimori
The National Transportation Safety Board found the probable cause of the accident was the 69-year-old pilot's loss of pitch control of the single-seat Glaser-Dirks DG-400 glider and the aircraft exceeding its airspeed limit for undetermined reasons, according to an NTSB report issued Thursday.
The NTSB report said a flight control malfunction could not be ruled out due to the glider's airframe being extensively fragmented.
"The cockpit, fuselage and empennage were shattered into unrecognizable pieces," it said.
The NTSB report noted Bigelow had the glider towed into the air to 12,600 feet above mean sea level from the Waimea-Kohala Airport and released at 10:28 a.m. Bigelow's last voice transmission indicated he was at 28,000 feet, climbing at 1,000 feet a minute, and that he was going to cross over to Mauna Loa.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park rangers found a debris field of Plexiglas near the fuselage wreckage. The canopy release knob was found in the stowed position, indicating it had not been activated.
The wreckage was found on Mauna Loa's southeastern slope on a steep slope of barren lava rock, the NTSB report said.
The body of Bigelow, a retired Air Force captain who flew F-102 fighter jets in Vietnam, was found at the 7,800-foot elevation level of Mauna Loa.
Bigelow, who had been flying gliders since the late 1970s, had also flown as a commercial pilot for Continental and Aloha airlines.
The flight data recorder showed the glider climbing to 20,375 feet near Holualoa, then flying east-northeast, rising to 30,116 feet over Mauna Kea, then heading south-southwest to Mauna Loa, climbing to 36,846 feet.
The glider reached 38,630 feet, just three minutes and 12 seconds before the end of the recording, when the glider suddenly stopped its ascent and began a rapid descent that reached 24,000 feet a minute over the next 16 seconds.
The aircraft had reversed its course 180 degrees, just 56 seconds from the end of the recording, dropping almost vertically, which could be attributed to structural failure of the airframe due to very high aerodynamic loads, the NTSB report said.
The left wing was found 3.44 miles from the main wreckage, showing it likely separated from the airframe at a high altitude. Other fracture lines show the plane had been traveling at airspeeds far above the manufacturer's recommended airspeed limit. At its fastest the glider was traveling at 241 knots (277 mph), while the manual lists its red-line airspeed at 146 knots (168 mph).
Autopsy findings showed Bigelow's immediate cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries, and he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.
