Veteran Pilot's Final Flight

0:00On April 3, an 82-year-old veteran pilot named Chris Lodge passed away from a heart attack right after crash, landing his own hand-built, tailor-model plane, and nail-in-air field near Sudbury, Unsuffoke. With over 1,500 flying hours, he was flying solo in the single-seater craft he disassembled back in 1973, powered by a 1600cc Volkswagen engine. The incident went down on June 17th last year. Lodge took off from a treat-farm airfield in Essex around 9.22 a.m., flew low at just 200 feet, then touched down mid-runway ad. Nayland about 10 minutes later. The planes swore of left into tall grass, nose-dover, and he was found unresponsive in the cockpit by 9.15 a.m. Folks in the aviation community knew Lodge well. He crafted wind propellers for small turboprops and was a fixture at local fields. Social media lit up with tributes calling him a great bloke, well-respected, and someone

1:00who died doing what he loved, even on that tricky slope, runway he's nailed countless times before. The air-accident investigation branch report points to a seized right shock absorber on the landing gear, been from some old damage, throwing off. Balance and likely sparking the veer, the planes can't be shattered and prop took a hit, but no one else was hurt. In the end, Lodge's story reminds us how passion keeps us flying high, even into the final approach.