Thread: Report: Lidle turn too tight

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-393941c.html




BY PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Cory Lidle Cory Lidle's small plane may have stalled high above Manhattan after the Yankees pitcher and his flight instructor attempted a difficult U-turn in a narrow corridor, federal investigators said yesterday. The National Transportation Safety Board said Lidle's plane exploded into an upper East Side tower after the pitcher and his instructor failed to take advantage of all their available air space.
The men attempted the U-turn on Oct. 11 in a corridor that was merely 2,100 feet wide.
The difficult maneuver was made even riskier because the wind was blowing west toward the buildings and the plane began the U-turn high above the middle of the East River - rather than over its eastern edge, the feds said.
Under the best scenario, the Cirrus SR20 would have had to turn at a 53-degree angle throughout the maneuver. Experts said flying at such an angle is far from advisable.
Lidle, 34, and Tyler Stanger, 26, may have turned into an even steeper angle, "which would have placed the airplane dangerously close to . . . a stall," the NTSB report stated.
A stall means there is not enough wind current to keep the wings and plane aloft, said former NTSB investigator Greg Feith.
"The preliminary cause will likely be something to the effect that the pilots attempted to make a turn with insufficient altitude and air space for obstacle avoidance," Feith said.
The NTSB report did not say whether the feds had determined who was at the controls of the doomed plane.
Investigators found no problem with the plane's propeller and engine. They also did not find evidence that the plane had been on fire or damaged before it slammed into the apartment building. Lidle and Stanger were making an aerial tour of Manhattan before flying back to California. Two days after the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered small, fixed-wing planes not to fly over the East River unless the pilot is in contact with air-traffic controllers.

Originally published on November 4, 2006

A stall is caused by the angle of attack being too great for that particular airspeed, all they would needed to have done is lower the angle of attack or increase airspeed, which would have been hard flying with a tailwind. What a shame if that is what caused it, easily avoidable with a proper flightplan.