A 66 year old light aircraft pilot from Lifton who took off while carrying out ground runs in order to gain experience on a single seater aircraft he had recently purchased has blamed his own inexperience as one of the causes of the crash which followed the take off.

The tiny Taylor Monoplane — reg G BDNO — soared to a height of around 30 feet before stalling and crashing back to the ground. The pilot was knocked unconscious and had to be freed from the wreckage and taken to hospital where he has since made a full recovery. An official Air Accident Investigation Branch report into the incident at Bodmin airfield on January 10 said that Richard Wilkinson of 16, Hannaford Road, Lifton, had recently purchased the 1977 built aircraft and was carrying out a high speed taxi run when the aircraft took off. The report stated: "The aircraft became airborne in a near vertical attitude."

It says that Mr Wilkinson, who had over 240 hours flying experience, had recently bought the aircraft and was intending to carry out some taxi runs to develop an understanding of handling it. It was a 'taildragger' and he had never flown that type of aircraft before. All his experience had been on nosewheel aircraft. And, because it was a single seater he could not take a co-pilot to teach him how to fly that type of aircraft.

The report continued: "There was no intention to fly the aircraft and the pilot initially taxied the aircraft around the manoeuvering area before then taxiing to the runway to conduct some high-speed runs. The first of these high-speed taxi runs was without incident and the pilot taxied back to the holding point in preparation for a second taxi run. He lined up on and opened the throttle halfway with the control stick full back.

"From this point 133 onward the pilot has no recollection of what happened up to the time he was later recovering in hospital." The report said that a witness saw the aircraft begin its second high-speed taxi but that it then became airborne. At about 30 feet above ground level the aircraft stalled and the left wing dropped. The left wing struck the ground first and the aircraft then cart wheeled. The engine and its cowlings detached at this point," says the report.

"The aircraft then came to rest upright, however the pilot was unconscious and rescue services had to extricate him from the cockpit due to the risk of fire from leaking fuel. Fortunately there was no fire. The pilot was taken to hospital where he recovered from his injuries.

"The pilot later assessed that whilst carrying out the taxi run a gust of wind may have allowed the aircraft to become airborne and his inexperience on taildragger aircraft was probably a contributory factor."