Plane crash at Chandler Park?

[okieinla]

Hi All!
Saw a blip on news re: a plane crash at Chandler Park.
Any more news?

[AngieB]

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0909/656566.html

[okieinla]

tks

[AngieB]

Better info on KOTV - http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=11081324

[Hoss]

Must have been awfully low to clip the guide wires, and I'm trying to figure out why he'd be so far north of RVS if he was headed to Arlington TX...but now that I look at the winds at 11am they do show out of the north, so he would have taken off that way and proceeded left and left again to get on course.  But by the time you get over Riverside Drive you should already be at nearly 2000 MSL and the wires are much lower than that.  Sounds like just what they said...dense fog, and I sure hope his altimeter was calibrated properly...

[Red Arrow]

I heard an interview with Bill Christiansen on KRMG.  Bill said they were on an IFR flight plan so they should have just gone up into the clouds and been clear of those towers.  Very tragic in any case.

[sgrizzle]

I heard an interview with Bill Christiansen on KRMG.  Bill said they were on an IFR flight plan so they should have just gone up into the clouds and been clear of those towers.  Very tragic in any case.

Wow, he's on the news for everything.

[Red Arrow]

Wow, he's on the news for everything.

In this case it is probably because of his aviation activities.  What I remember hearing seemed non-political to me.

[Hoss]

Wow, he's on the news for everything.

Never heard of Christiansen Aviation I take it?  The biggest FBO out of Jones?  Likely they got pre-flighted and other activities before they left from Christiansen.

[Red Arrow]

A check of the publicly available FAA records shows that Stephen T Lester had a private pilot rating but not an instrument rating.  That explains why he was staying below the clouds.  I don't have the weather conditions at Riverside/Jones at the time he took off so I can make no further evaluation.

[Hoss]

A check of the publicly available FAA records shows that Stephen T Lester had a private pilot rating but not an instrument rating.  That explains why he was staying below the clouds.  I don't have the weather conditions at Riverside/Jones at the time he took off so I can make no further evaluation.

Those records can be up to six months out of date.  If you're talking about the records from landings.com or any other public source, those don't get updated very often.  He may have had his instrument rating but the database didn't reflect it.  If he filed an IFR flight plan (you can't do this as a PPL without an instrument endorsement) then either he wasn't the primary pilot or he had obtained his instrument rating recently.

I know this because as a student pilot, my certificate didn't show up for nearly six months, and one of my best friends is a pilot is instrument rated, and also a ground school teacher and both of those certifications didn't reveal themselves on the public database for nearly six months.

Dr. Lester's Class 3 medical was also due to expire this month, which is required to have as a ASEL pilot (Airplane, single engine land).  It's likely he'd already renewed that, if that's any indicator.

[Hoss]

A check of the publicly available FAA records shows that Stephen T Lester had a private pilot rating but not an instrument rating.  That explains why he was staying below the clouds.  I don't have the weather conditions at Riverside/Jones at the time he took off so I can make no further evaluation.

Weather at 10:53 AM:

05   10:53   N 7   3.00   Overcast with Haze   OVC008   73   68           84%   30.11   1020.0   

That translates into:

Wind out of the North at about 9mph (NWS uses knots)
Visibility 3 miles
Sky conditions, overcast with haze, hard ceiling at 800 AGL (about 1500 MSL, which would have precluded a VFR pilot from flying in Class C airspace; you can't fly VFR if the ceilings are below 1000 feet AGL I believe and he would have been right at the visibility limit, which is 3 miles)
Temp 73
Dew point 68
Hum 64%
Altimeter 30.11

[Red Arrow]

Those records can be up to six months out of date.  If you're talking about the records from landings.com or any other public source, those don't get updated very often.  He may have had his instrument rating but the database didn't reflect it.  If he filed an IFR flight plan (you can't do this as a PPL without an instrument endorsement) then either he wasn't the primary pilot or he had obtained his instrument rating recently.

Dr. Lester's Class 3 medical was also due to expire this month, which is required to have as a ASEL pilot (Airplane, single engine land).  It's likely he'd already renewed that, if that's any indicator.

I checked on the FAA's website.  True, the records may be out of date.  I don't know 1st hand that he filed an IFR flight plan.  I heard it on the radio (KRMG) yesterday.

Medicals expire at the end of the month.  There is no requirement to renew before then so whether he had renewed it or not is irrelevant.

[Conan71]

Weather at 10:53 AM:

05   10:53   N 7   3.00   Overcast with Haze   OVC008   73   68           84%   30.11   1020.0   

That translates into:

Wind out of the North at about 9mph (NWS uses knots)
Visibility 3 miles
Sky conditions, overcast with haze, hard ceiling at 800 AGL (about 1500 MSL, which would have precluded a VFR pilot from flying in Class C airspace; you can't fly VFR if the ceilings are below 1000 feet AGL I believe and he would have been right at the visibility limit, which is 3 miles)
Temp 73
Dew point 68
Hum 64%
Altimeter 30.11

If, in fact, he did not have his IFR ticket, gethereitis just claimed another family.