I heard about this event while at Brodhead. The airplane lost a wheel on takeoff and the pilot did a great job of landing it on one wheel. (See some of my closeups of this Corvair job on earlier pages.) Michael Cuy took these two photos and posted them on facebook.

Michael Cuy reports:
"Kevin Purtee did a phenominal job of landing with a broken left main gear leg. Zero damage, outstanding pilotage. Hats off to Keven too for flying 1,100 miles from TX to have his plane there. The repairs were COMPLETE that night and Kevin flew tons of good rides the next day."

Click on this panorama for a 20 inch wide image:

Here are some photos and comments by Jack Phillips:

The not so proud owner climbing out of the wreckage of his once beautiful Piet. A broken weld on his landing gear caused him to make a beautiful one wheel landing. The plane was repaired that day and flew the next day.

We lifted the plane onto saw horses, removed the broken gear and it was welded and replaced that day. If you have to break a Piet, Brodhead is the place to do it.

8/4/10 update -- And now we have video footage of the landing:

Grant --
Did you happen to catch the video that Jess Mueller shot from her and her husband Ryan's new green and white Pietenpol's back seat? She thought Kevin might groundloop right into her but thankfully didn't.
Michael Cuy

OR

VIDEO HERE

Below -- Jack Phillips took this photo and said "Not only did Ryan let Mike fly his new plane, but he insisted he take his wife too. Apparently the insurance scam didn't work out as planned."
Jess, in the front pit was the videographer, who shot the landing clip above. Behind her is pilot Michael Cuy.

Click on this panorama for a 12 inch wide image:

Twp photos by Jack Phillips, stitched by Grant MacLaren