scott heger
Custom-made Troublemaker
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2003
- Messages
- 1,636
- Location
- Southern California
- Aircraft
- SportCopter Bell 206L-1
- Total Flight Time
- 1350
Just the facts first…….
I was camped next to Mike this weekend. We had talked numerous times and enjoyed some stories and laughs. He was in a very good mood every time I saw him. On Saturday afternoon it was hotter than it normally is, and I decided to catch a nap. When I woke up, I was surprised that Mike had already loaded his gyro on his trailer during the hottest part of the day. I kidded him about stopping flying early when there was still gasoline in the tank to fly. Another camper nearby had brought a BMW motorcycle to the event. It was an enduro style motorcycle(good for riding in both dirt and street situations). The motorcycle owner asked me about any restrictions about riding in the area and I said no, just miss the areas with bumps.
He went for a high speed ride around the western part of the lakebed, and returned and asked if I wanted to ride the bike. I said sure, and rode it for a few minutes to cool off. It was still very hot outside. When I returned, Mike came over to my campsite and started looking at the motorcycle and asking about it. Mike asked the owner if he could ride the bike. The owner asked Mike about his riding experience, and Mike gave a detailed explanation of his experience and said he currently had a motorcycle. This satisfied the owner (and me if I was the owner) that he had the skill to ride. The owner then warned Mike about a series of bumps and depressions in the lakebed and where they were. I also told Mike the same thing and pointed them out to him and the areas to avoid. Mike acknowledged these warnings and was shown the controls by the owner and departed. He and I were the last people to ever talk to Mike.
As Mike rode off westbound I began to prep my gyro for another flight, I looked at my watch and it was exactly 6PM. I saw Mike riding the motorcycle at speed, but did not give it much of a thought. It is not unusual to see that kind of riding as no speed limit exist for this area. I had just ridden the same bike around at about 85MPH and it was very easy and stable to ride (fast). I saw Mike was at the far end of the El Mirage lakebed, and was coming towards us at a good speed. My attention was diverted back to my gyro, and a person watching him yelled that a motorcycle had crashed. I looked back to the area where Mike had been riding, and there was nothing but a huge dust cloud.
The motorcycle owner and I jumped on my 4 wheeler and arrived within a minute. The dust was still so thick that we had to slow down in the area. We found Mike on the ground just a few feet from the motorcycle, which was still running on its side. Mike was unconscious and never moved again. He did not suffer at all. I immediately called 911. My cell phone showed 6:03Pm. I gave the location and requested paramedics. This is a very remote area, and I knew the response was going to be extended. People from the fly-in started to arrive, Mike had no pulse and was not breathing. CPR was started, and at least three full teams of people gave him CPR and manual breathing. I made another call to 911 at 6:17PM requesting a life-flight helicopter, but none was available. Paramedics and an ambulance arrived at 6:28PM. Despite everyone’s heroic effort to save Mike, he passed, and nothing more could be done. The bumps he hit were very hard to see at high speed, as they were the same color as the ground around it and smooth. There were no brake marks at all.
Not the facts…..
The path of his ride went straight into the area we both had warned him to avoid. Why he chose to ride in that direction, we will never know. I returned to Mike’s campsite, and there was Brownie, Mike’s little dog starring at me. He loved that dog so much, and Brownie was always following Mike around the campsite. I petted Brownie, and told the dog I was sorry Mike was not coming back to hold him anymore. In that 30 minutes, many people’s lives had changed, and not for the better. I stood there at camp looking at Mike’s gyro on the trailer. “Slightly Dangerous” had quite a history. Mike took such pride in his gyro that he built from scratch, he did more work building that gyro than I could ever imagine trying to do myself. His energy and enthusiasm were contagious. I had watched when he crashed several years ago. Ironically, it was less than 100 yards from where he died. We had a very heated conversation back then about why his accident happened. Mike, nor I , were ones to sugarcoat words. We actually kidded each other about this discussion on Friday. The Saturday night BBQ was muted. Everyone at the fly in was so depressed when the announcement was made.
I always liked to get Mike's verbal sparing going. Mike job was in prison corrections before he retired. He very much dislikes a local Sheriff in Maricopa County (Phoenix) who makes the prisoners’ wear pink underwear and live in hard conditions. I asked a friend of mine to question Mike about this sheriff Friday night, knowing fireworks were going to fly. Mike went off like a Jupiter 5 missile telling my friend what was so wrong with this guy. It was Mike at his finest. Mike had an attitude about life that only comes from a person with many years of experience dealing with the good and the bad in this world. He was not afraid of death, and did not want to become an old invalid. He was 65 years young. Mike never saw many shades of gray; everything was black or white, not very unusual for a law and order kind of guy. I only wish I would have done something different that changed the chain of events that occurred.
I look at the picture of Mike flying at sunset that Edna took, and it says many things. A man that has the will power to take on the challenges of gravity in something he built himself. A man unafraid of peril. Most of all, I see in that photo a proud man living life to the fullest with all the energy he can muster. I will miss Mike very much. I can not imagine the families' pain right now, but any one(family or otherwise), that reads this should know that Mike was a very happy man right to the end.
Scott Heger, Laguna Niguel, Ca N86SH
I was camped next to Mike this weekend. We had talked numerous times and enjoyed some stories and laughs. He was in a very good mood every time I saw him. On Saturday afternoon it was hotter than it normally is, and I decided to catch a nap. When I woke up, I was surprised that Mike had already loaded his gyro on his trailer during the hottest part of the day. I kidded him about stopping flying early when there was still gasoline in the tank to fly. Another camper nearby had brought a BMW motorcycle to the event. It was an enduro style motorcycle(good for riding in both dirt and street situations). The motorcycle owner asked me about any restrictions about riding in the area and I said no, just miss the areas with bumps.
He went for a high speed ride around the western part of the lakebed, and returned and asked if I wanted to ride the bike. I said sure, and rode it for a few minutes to cool off. It was still very hot outside. When I returned, Mike came over to my campsite and started looking at the motorcycle and asking about it. Mike asked the owner if he could ride the bike. The owner asked Mike about his riding experience, and Mike gave a detailed explanation of his experience and said he currently had a motorcycle. This satisfied the owner (and me if I was the owner) that he had the skill to ride. The owner then warned Mike about a series of bumps and depressions in the lakebed and where they were. I also told Mike the same thing and pointed them out to him and the areas to avoid. Mike acknowledged these warnings and was shown the controls by the owner and departed. He and I were the last people to ever talk to Mike.
As Mike rode off westbound I began to prep my gyro for another flight, I looked at my watch and it was exactly 6PM. I saw Mike riding the motorcycle at speed, but did not give it much of a thought. It is not unusual to see that kind of riding as no speed limit exist for this area. I had just ridden the same bike around at about 85MPH and it was very easy and stable to ride (fast). I saw Mike was at the far end of the El Mirage lakebed, and was coming towards us at a good speed. My attention was diverted back to my gyro, and a person watching him yelled that a motorcycle had crashed. I looked back to the area where Mike had been riding, and there was nothing but a huge dust cloud.
The motorcycle owner and I jumped on my 4 wheeler and arrived within a minute. The dust was still so thick that we had to slow down in the area. We found Mike on the ground just a few feet from the motorcycle, which was still running on its side. Mike was unconscious and never moved again. He did not suffer at all. I immediately called 911. My cell phone showed 6:03Pm. I gave the location and requested paramedics. This is a very remote area, and I knew the response was going to be extended. People from the fly-in started to arrive, Mike had no pulse and was not breathing. CPR was started, and at least three full teams of people gave him CPR and manual breathing. I made another call to 911 at 6:17PM requesting a life-flight helicopter, but none was available. Paramedics and an ambulance arrived at 6:28PM. Despite everyone’s heroic effort to save Mike, he passed, and nothing more could be done. The bumps he hit were very hard to see at high speed, as they were the same color as the ground around it and smooth. There were no brake marks at all.
Not the facts…..
The path of his ride went straight into the area we both had warned him to avoid. Why he chose to ride in that direction, we will never know. I returned to Mike’s campsite, and there was Brownie, Mike’s little dog starring at me. He loved that dog so much, and Brownie was always following Mike around the campsite. I petted Brownie, and told the dog I was sorry Mike was not coming back to hold him anymore. In that 30 minutes, many people’s lives had changed, and not for the better. I stood there at camp looking at Mike’s gyro on the trailer. “Slightly Dangerous” had quite a history. Mike took such pride in his gyro that he built from scratch, he did more work building that gyro than I could ever imagine trying to do myself. His energy and enthusiasm were contagious. I had watched when he crashed several years ago. Ironically, it was less than 100 yards from where he died. We had a very heated conversation back then about why his accident happened. Mike, nor I , were ones to sugarcoat words. We actually kidded each other about this discussion on Friday. The Saturday night BBQ was muted. Everyone at the fly in was so depressed when the announcement was made.
I always liked to get Mike's verbal sparing going. Mike job was in prison corrections before he retired. He very much dislikes a local Sheriff in Maricopa County (Phoenix) who makes the prisoners’ wear pink underwear and live in hard conditions. I asked a friend of mine to question Mike about this sheriff Friday night, knowing fireworks were going to fly. Mike went off like a Jupiter 5 missile telling my friend what was so wrong with this guy. It was Mike at his finest. Mike had an attitude about life that only comes from a person with many years of experience dealing with the good and the bad in this world. He was not afraid of death, and did not want to become an old invalid. He was 65 years young. Mike never saw many shades of gray; everything was black or white, not very unusual for a law and order kind of guy. I only wish I would have done something different that changed the chain of events that occurred.
I look at the picture of Mike flying at sunset that Edna took, and it says many things. A man that has the will power to take on the challenges of gravity in something he built himself. A man unafraid of peril. Most of all, I see in that photo a proud man living life to the fullest with all the energy he can muster. I will miss Mike very much. I can not imagine the families' pain right now, but any one(family or otherwise), that reads this should know that Mike was a very happy man right to the end.
Scott Heger, Laguna Niguel, Ca N86SH
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