Yesterday Jonny Thompson collapsed the landing gear on one of the
Quest Air Dragonflies and put the plane on its nose. Jonny was "okay" but he is
pretty sore today.

Jonny was towing a kingposted pilot south in 5 to 10 mph winds down the north
south long runway when the engine coughed. He was drifting to the east and
thought that the pilot had released behind him after he waved him off). He was low and attempted a 180
degree turn and didn't quite make it around. The pilot had not released (it in
up to the tow pilot to released the towee when the tow plane has a problem and Jonny failed to do this) and
Jonny felt the tug of the hang glider pilot just when he least expected it.

Coming around (I watched the whole thing), the left wheel dug into the ground
and the landing gear collapsed on that side. As the wheel came down to the
ground I thought that he was going to be able to do a one wheel landing as I've
seen many times here, but the rod holding the wheel collapsed. The other wheel
hit the ground as did the nose of the Dragonfly.

The cage around the pilot did not collapse and Jonny was immediately out of the
plane and walking. I was the first one there on my bike but within a second
others were there on motorized craft, including Mark Frutiger in the club car
and Jim Prahl in another Dragonfly.

Jonny is quite sore but nothing was broke. He came in slow from not very high.

Russell will have the Dragonfly rebuilt over the next couple of weeks. It has
already been torn down to small pieces (with two hours after the incident).

Didn't want to report on this yesterday as Jonny asked everyone not to until he
spoke with Linda, his wife.