"I don't want to go out in my bathtub, and I don't want to go out in my bed," Crossfield told her."I want to go out in my plane."

November 22, 2006 5:10 PM

The Last Flight of Scott Crossfield. Esquire imagines Scott Crossfield's last flight. (previous discussion; more inside)
posted by kirkaracha (11 comments total)

Photo of Mr. Crossfield's (intact) Cessna. Live flight tracker of his final flight. NTSB preliminary report of the accident.

In 2003 he was the flight trainer for an attempted reenactment of the Wright Brothers' flight. He was the keynote speaker at last December's Wright Brothers Memorial Dinner, and showed video of himself flying the Wright Brothers replica (he didn't want to let the pilots do anything he hadn't done himself). In an interview in 2001, he said, "Today, I focus my free time on three things: my interest and support of aerospace education, maintaining and flying my Cessna 210 and keeping an 80-year-old system operational."
posted by kirkaracha at 5:11 PM on November 22, 2006

That there is a corkin' page-turner; the part about small planes bouncing around inside storms scared me even sillier than, say, a giant centipede in my shower would. The font choice, though, is Not Safe for the Presbyopic, but then, they're hardly Esquire's key demographic.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:34 PM on November 22, 2006

Growing up I had (and still do) an intense interest in high-performance aviation. When I read the title it was very hard for me emotionally. Even though Scott was never in the spaceflight program back in the 60's and 70's he easily could have been. A true fallen astronaut/cosmonaut/taikonaut. Before he had the chance to truly leap. Surely he would have been the best in that class of mortal.

.
posted by mk1gti at 5:56 PM on November 22, 2006

There were good bits, but the worst of Esquire's excesses were on display. Half the story was wondering about what can't be known, and Jones apparently likes to write at length about things that couldn't have happened (or have been seen). Or maybe it was just filler, because there really isn't much to tell.

Eighty-four. Well, here's hoping any of us is still pushing ourselves at 84.
posted by dhartung at 6:48 PM on November 22, 2006

From the NTSB prelim report: "The pilot was not issued weather advisories or related SIGMETS, according to Atlanta ARTCC voice communications."

As a complete ignoranimus about air traffic control, I'm curious. Is it usual or unusual that Crossfield got no advance notice that major storms might be a-brewing? Obviously, this one whipped up pretty fast, as weather is wont to do. Do light aircraft pilots routinely find themselves inside dangerous storms before ARTCC can give them a heads-up?
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:37 PM on November 22, 2006

The prelim states he was on an IFR (instrument flight rules) flight plan at the time of the accident. In my experience, pilots are notified of extremely adverse weather conditions ahead and asked their intentions. (At least that's what happened to me, flying a Piper Cherokee IFR to Indianapolis when a good squall line built up in front of me, I diverted to Johnstown, PA, and was extremely happy to be on the ground when the storm hit about 10 minutes after I landed). Notification may be dependent on a SIGMET advisory being issued (SIGnificant METeorological). I'm sure the final report will cover it in much more detail, even though they seemed to have gotten the number of prop blades actually installed on the airplane wrong.
posted by pjern at 8:55 PM on November 22, 2006

That Esquire article is an embarassment - overwrought, portentious writing that does no justice to the story itself.
posted by twsf at 9:33 PM on November 22, 2006

overwrought, portentious writing

Point taken, but OPW is de rigueur in the Krakauer-derived school of Edmund Fitzgeraldy, drama in real life light-entertainment feature writing of which this is an example. Equal parts Marlboro manliness, weather porn, and purple prose: "Alas, no one can know what happened during those last harrowing moments aboard the Andrea Gail, but the swordboat skippers say it might have gone like this. . . ." For readers with serious interest or expertise in Crossley and aviation, this would be the wrong stuff, but like the presbyopic, they're hardly Esquire's key demographic.
posted by FelliniBlank at 11:09 PM on November 22, 2006

Fellini, I'm also very ignorant about ATC procedures.

However, having lived near Atlanta for a few years now, I can tell you that thunderstorms 'pop up' here... they literally form out of nothing. It has something to do with the way Atlanta concentrates heat, combined with the pervasive and nasty humidity. We get very, very intense storms that literally weren't there 30 minutes prior. The rain and lightning are absolutely insane for 30 or 40 minutes, and then it blows past and often reveals sunny skies again.

Strikes me as entirely possible that the Atlanta ATC may not have known about the storm, or by the time they knew, it may have been too late to warn him.
posted by Malor at 5:30 AM on November 23, 2006

A mesmerisingly bad piece of writing. As Philip Larkin used to say, "Gruesome Aroma of BUM""!
posted by gdav at 6:41 AM on November 23, 2006

I don't think that was a particularly relevant link gdav but as a big Larkin fan I thank you for it. 'sod up the romantic business actively' indeed
posted by tellurian at 6:07 AM on November 28, 2006