Fellow Lancair drivers/builders,

It has been a tough 24 hours saying good-bye to an inspirating mentor and
wonderful friend, Chuck Brenner.  

In addition to building numerous excellent Lancairs like mine, Chuck had
many friends in our Lancair community.

Chuck Brenner died yesterday at approximately 2:40 PM CST near my  local
airport in Orange, TX (ORG) upon high energy impact of his 360 with
terrain.  His wife, Tammy, son, Samuel(6), Matlyn(3), were staying with
friends in Houston at that time as they all had evacuated from FL due to
Frances. Chuck had been doing some usual excellent work on my 2000 Brenner
built SuperES for last 3 days while he was in this area of the country.
After flying with me to check out repairs at noon, he was headed back to
Houston to wait with his family on restoration of services in FL. I had ran
back to office while he was going to FBO to get ready to leave.  I was
called back to airport about 1 hour later that his 360 was down and Chuck
was fatally injured. One of our CFI's reported seeing Chuck doing a low
pass over airport with gear down(unknown reason), followed by pull up, and
then what appeared to be power on stall, recovery, then high speed impact
with terrain.  FAA/NTSB have processed scene.

It is a difficult call to make to friend's spouse on such a situation.  Our
collective airport families have spent the day here with Tammy, Sam, and
Mattie, making arrangements.  Chuck's memorial service is expected to be in
Houston this Friday.

In lieu of sending flowers,etc to service, Tammy has asked that
contributions to Sam and Mattie's educational trust funds. Hopefully, in a
few days, I can post those account and bank info as we are in process
quickly setting those up.  Our mutual friend, David Allen, is planning to
fly Tammy and kids back to Pt. St. Lucie, FL around the 19th as well as
help to remove hurricane boards, etc.

Please keep them in your prayers/thoughts.  More importantly, please
consider any contribution/help to Tammy, Sam, and Mattie.  Again, info soon
to be posted on to to do this.

Sincerely,

Wilbur Hah
N997LP