Pilot who died had love for flying

MOUNT PLEASANT -- The pilot killed in a plane crash Monday was a California native who came from a family of aviators and ran his own plane-ferrying business. Before he died, he also described the danger and thrills of flying as worth every minute.

Dustin Rabe, 29, of Los Gatos, Calif., died from blunt-force injury to the head, the Charleston County coroner's office said Tuesday.

In a posting on his MySpace page, Rabe, who was alone in the plane Monday, described flying as the most satisfying career he could find.

"Some say it is dangerous, but once you do it for the first time, the adreneline (sic) is addicting, kind of like alcohol for alcoholics, cigarettes to smokers, or herion (sic) to drug addicts," he said in one entry.

Rabe's father, George Rabe of Los Gatos, said his son's love of aviation stems from his grandfather, who flew for United Airlines for 35 years.

Rabe said his son had been able to see the world while ferrying aircraft to the exotic islands of the Pacific and across the Atlantic to Europe, landing in such places as Germany, Poland, Finland and Denmark. Riding motorcycles and quad-bikes were his other interests.

"He loved life," said George Rabe, also a licensed pilot.

Rabe left from Merritt Island, Fla., heading to Mount Pleasant on an instrumental flight plan that was to last about two hours, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

He was flying a fixed-wing, single-engine experimental aircraft called the Comp Air 8 when it crashed at the East Cooper Regional Airport, bursting into flames before stopping in a marsh near the runway.

Rabe was pronounced dead at the scene. The plane is registered to a Delaware company called Bogco Aviation Inc. No phone number is listed.

On the webpage for his flying business, Ferry Flight Express in Los Gatos, Rabe said he had accumulated thousands of hours of flight experience "with most of the hours ferrying aircraft both domestically and over the North Atlantic and Pacific."