Folsom barber killed in Auburn plane crash

The family of a popular Folsom barber, who was killed Thanksgiving Day in a plane crash along with her husband, described the pair as outgoing adventurers.Larry Ampulski, 55, and his wife Janet Ampulski, 59, were killed after the Cessna 177 Cardinal aircraft, leased from Auburn's Wayne Manning, crashed into a thicket of trees, narrowly missing a rural Auburn area house around 11 a.m. Thanksgiving Day.The couple were descrbied by their niece Molly Tolle as "vibrant.""They were outgoing and blessed a lot of people's lives," she said in a telephone interview. "They scuba dived, mountain biked, skydived and water skied."Lynn Tolle said her sister was a wonderful person."She had lots of really good friends who loved her," Tolle said. "She had a generous heart and always was fun to be around."Janet Ampulski enjoyed traveling the back roads around her rural El Dorado County home, was a rock collector and "garage sale queen," Tolle said.Janet Ampulski worked for eight years at Tom's Barber shop in Folsom. Her boss Tom Ward was hit hard by the news of his employee and friend's death."There's so much to say," Ward said Monday. "She was a very giving, real person. Everybody loved her."Ampulski had a long list of steady clients that loved their barber."They were very special people to her," Ward said. "When you work in a small town, everybody knows you. She'll be missed."Tim Ampulski said his brother, one of seven children, was a very giving big brother."My father was 47 when I was born and Larry was 12. He did a lot of the things my father couldn't do with me like playing baseball and he took me diving."He said Monday the family is trying to cope with their sudden loss."It's a very sad situation," he said. "They were inseparable and doing something that they loved when their time came."Officials believe the Ampulskis were on a local flight and returning to the Auburn airport when they crashed.Witnesses reported hearing the engine prior to the crash. Deputies located the small aircraft in the front yard of a rural Auburn-area home.The National Transportation Safety Bureau removed the wreckage of the plane Friday and continues to investigate the cause.The Ampulskis and their dog Maxine were the only ones onboard the single-engine, four-seat plane when it hit nose-first about 30 feet in front of a 13700-block Wright Road house, a half-mile north of the airport.The plane struck an outcropping of boulders and lodged tail up in a small thicket of trees. Larry Ampulski was a private pilot and had made more than 1,500 jumps as a ski diver.Gold Country News Service's Penne Usher can be reached at penneu@goldcountrymedia.com.