SAN ANTONIO – A Houston man who crashed his personal aircraft in a field in Shertz Friday morning has died from his injuries.
David Denning, 53, was piloting a powered paraglider when he lost control of it and crashed into a field in the 17000 Block of Red Iron.
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According to his instructor, Ashton Brunner, Denning was fairly new to the sport of powered paragliding. He bought his glider about 6 months ago and had been taking flying lessons with Brunner for about the same period of time.
While Denning had logged several hours on a flight simulator Friday was only his second actual flight.
Brunner said powered paragliding is a big sport in Europe and is starting gain popularity here in the U.S.
"It's a very simple safe sport," Brunner said. "Most of the time what hurts people is flying into things or a prop injury from not paying attention to the prop."
Brunner said he has been teaching people to fly powered paragliders for about 10 years and today was the first time he lost one of his students.
Brunner said Denning took off in perfect weather conditions from the Kitty Hawk Flying Field around 9 a.m.
Brunner was in constant contact with his student on a radio giving him instructions. At one point in the flight, Denning attempted to make a turn, but it appears he didn't properly perform the maneuver. Brunner said Denning's attempts to correct the mistake made the situation worse, causing the glider to crash violently into the ground.
According to Brunner, it's a common mistake for beginners.
"If a pilot gets scared or nervous they'll over control and that means they're not responding to the radio, or anything like that. That's why we do so many drills to try to keep them from not doing that," Brunner said. "When they get in the air or they hit a bump or they get scared it's like a deer running out in front of you in your car, are you going to hit the deer or are you going veer off the road and save the deer and hurt yourself. "
Brunner said if Denning had followed his commands and let go of the controls, the glider would have stabilized itself.
While accidents happen fatalities are not very common. Brunner said most pilots walk away from crashes because the aircraft only go about 25 miles per hour.
Many people are attracted to the sport because you can buy a glider for about $10,000 and you don't need to obtain a special license to pilot one.
The FAA is investigating the crash.