Sad News in Tehachapi

[cessna170bdriver]

For those of you who attended the 2004 Cessna 170 Convention in Tehachapi, one of the Tehachapi Society of Pilots (TSP) volunteers who helped with the convention throughout the week, Bob Hedlund, was killed when his Bellanca crashed last Friday May 20. Bob had had some maintenance performed on the Bellanca at Exeter, CA, about 75 miles northwest and was returning the plane to home base, and didn't arrive as expected.

Kim Cummings, another TSP member and 170 convention volunteer was the observer in the search airplane that located the crash on Saturday. Kim was also the one who led sherrif's deputies to the scene near the town of Caliente, about 15 miles northwest of Tehachapi. Kim's take from the wreckage and ground scarring was that the airplane was in a descending right turn when it struck the ground. Even though the terrain in the area is mountainous, the wreckage was located in an area of fairly level terrain.

The weather in the area last Friday was low visibility in the San Joaquin Valley, and low visibility and mountain obscuration in the Seirra Nevada mountains , leading most to believe that Bob was attempting a 180 turn to avoid a ridge and failed to maintain level flight. Of course none of this is official, just the observations of an experienced pilot.

Bob was a great supporter of general aviation in the Tehachapi area and a great friend to all who knew him. He will be deeply missed.

A copy of an article from the Saturday Bakersfield Californian can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~tspairport/