On 3rd June 1983 this aircraft was being flown from Carlisle airport to Little Snoring airfield in Norfolk and the first part of the planned route was to have been
from Carlisle down the west coast of Cumbria, past Aspatria, Whitehaven and Broughton-in-Furness to Lancaster. The aircraft took off at 13.17hrs and at 13.32 the pilot
made a radio call to state that he was over Maryport, nothing further was heard from the aircraft. Low cloud was covering much of the high ground of Cumbria on this
day and the aircraft was seen to be flying in and out of cloud as it flew over Ennerdale Water heading south-east. The aircraft flew into a rock face on the lower
slopes of Steeple at 13.45hrs and was destroyed, the two men in the aircraft were killed instantly.
The crash investigation found that in the weather conditions the pilot may have mistaken Whitehaven for Workington. The intended part of the route from Whitehaven
to Broughton-in-Furness would have needed a 135º turn to be made after passing Whitehaven and the accident occurred close to the 135º from Workington. It was assumed
that the pilot mistook Workington for Whitehaven and turned onto the track of 135º too early which took the aircraft up Ennerdale by mistake. The pilot had not received
any instrument flying training so would have only been flying using what he could see out of the windows prior to the crash. The crash site is just about in a direct
line with a line down the middle of Ennerdale Water, a newspaper report of the day quoted a witness who said the aircraft had just cleared one ridge just prior to the
crash and having located the crash site this is easy to believe. By the time the pilot realised that there was higher ground immediately in front of the aircraft the
distance required to climb to avoid it was too small to avoid a crash. Climbing would also have meant entering cloud and loosing his visual contact with the ground which
would have taken above the flying skills he possessed.
Pilot - Mr David Oliver Alfred Elmer, aged 43, of Dereham, Norfolk. Killed.
Passenger - Mr Robert Ian Elmer, aged 45, of Beckingham, Lincolnshire. Killed.
Tailwind G-BALR was built in 1973 from an EJEP Development kit and was first registered to Mr Robert Leslie Hughes of Preston, Lancashire on 3rd January 1973 who
was almost certainly the gentleman who built the aircraft. On 6th July 1977 the registration transferred to Mr Michael Alexander Grayburn, of Ingatestone, Essex, who
owned it for just over a year. Mr David Elmer, then of Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, became the registered owner of G-BALR on 27th July 1978 and had owned it for five
years prior to the accident. The photograph shown here was taken at Duxford in 1981 with Mr David Elmer at the controls. I thank Mr Oliver Elmer for contacting me in
September 2014 and for kindly supplying the two photographs of his father's aircraft that are shown on this webpage.
The Tailwind was designed by Steve Wittmann but many of the examples flown in the UK came through the AJEP Developments factory. AJEP Developments made a number
of improvements to the aircraft and supplied the aircraft to customers either in kit form, or as a pre-assembled aircraft. The Tailwind was custom built-to-order
aircraft, rather than a mass produced aircraft and dispite its small size; with a wingspan of just 22 feet, and 21 feet in length it was a fast aircraft. Many of
the examples flown in the UK were built by AJEP.
With this being one of the lesser recorded air accident in the Lake District I wanted to find the site and record it, the site would appear to have been left pretty
much un-touched since the site was cleared soon after the crash. The aircraft crashed into rocks shown on this photograph as seen in 2011 when I found it.
The remnants of a cross made from parts of the aircraft which I discovered in 2011 and re-erected.
A number of small pieces of wood and metal were located at the crash site in April 2011, most of the wood is showing the signs of being on the mountain for the last
thirty years and is now very fragile.
A number of metal components of the aircraft were also located at the crash site which confirmed the location. The photograph above shows a brake caliper manufactured
in 1973 by Cleveland Aircraft, Ohio and this part is still made by the same company today. The photograph below shows a plate from the aircraft's generator manufactured
by Delco Remy, again the company still makes the same equipment today.
