# Jose Wejebe in a plane crash



## Bird (May 10, 2005)

The intrepid host of "Spanish Fly" and legendary fly fisherman was killed in a plane crash. Sad. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...IQAWOjg0S_story.html?tid=pm_entertainment_pop


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## Fishing Fedora (Jan 16, 2012)

Been seeing that all over the internet, super sad, I've grown up watching that guy.


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## Joe. T. (Jun 7, 2008)

walker cay chronicles and Spanish fly.pretty much what got me started in fly fishing salt. very sad.....


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Bird said:


> The intrepid host of "Spanish Fly" and legendary fly fisherman was killed in a plane crash. Sad.
> 
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/enter...IQAWOjg0S_story.html?tid=pm_entertainment_pop


 Been reading all the stories. Very tragic. I record all of his episodes and watch one almost every morning while drinking coffee and reading the news. Feels like I lost one of my fishing buddies. TOO YOUNG. Prayers sent. Wish he had a Friday do-over.....TW


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## Coconut Groves (Nov 2, 2011)

Very sad - he contributed so much to the sport and community. He will be missed. I hope they do a show in his memory.


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## FishyChef (Jun 22, 2011)

RIP Jose! You were one of my favorites! Spanish Fly's and Tight lines lines to ya!


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

Very sad. Probably my most favorite salt water show. Really enjoyed his humor, the tackle box session, and his passion for the sport. It was contagious.

I hate to say this, but having been a pilot for almost half a century, I was really concerned when he got his plane. Great plane, but so often people who are very successful in some area of life, decide to take up flying and they tend to think that they can just fly and treat it casually: John Denver, Ben Abruzzo, JFK Jr., etc. And unfortunately things end up badly. No reason to say it, I just had the feeling. flying is not a casual hobby. I will watch with anticipation, for the report of the causes.


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

THE JAMMER said:


> Very sad. Probably my most favorite salt water show. Really enjoyed his humor, the tackle box session, and his passion for the sport. It was contagious.
> 
> I hate to say this, but having been a pilot for almost half a century, I was really concerned when he got his plane. Great plane, but so often people who are very successful in some area of life, decide to take up flying and they tend to think that they can just fly and treat it casually: John Denver, Ben Abruzzo, JFK Jr., etc. And unfortunately things end up badly. No reason to say it, I just had the feeling. flying is not a casual hobby. I will watch with anticipation, for the report of the causes.


 Found the JFK crash saddening and wasteful as well. I wanted to fly when I was a teenager. My dad very quickly informed me for the above reason "only if you plan to make it a career". I know the pro's have accidents but seems to often be experience related. Guy can run a SeaVee to Isla safely...but the water is usually more forgiving. Will miss his style. TW


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## solrac (Aug 31, 2007)

Bummer. RIP Jose.


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## spitfire (Jan 2, 2007)

*Wow!*

I still can't believe it or maybe I just don't want to!


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

if you missed the tribute to him on his show it is worth recording if it comes up again. I don't get attached to media types but I will really miss him and what he was doing for our sport.. Again...too young. TW


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

I watched the tribute as well. I actually watched it twice. It was awesome, and I'm not embarassed to say it literally brought tears to my eyes. I will sorely miss him and his show.


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

Good guy-- Its a shame this happened.


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

NTSB released more info about his altitude, turn and crash. No cause. Jammer..any ideas?? Crosswind lift his wing and push him downwind? Still watching his reruns...Only have 5 now. My DVR blew up and I lost my old ones. The show with his daughter is going to be run Friday pm.


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

I just read that brief NTSB piece and it said after climbing about 150 feet he took a sharp right hand turn, and then started nose diving. All airplanes have a stall speed in straight and level flight with a given weight. When an angle of bank is introduced, the stall speed increases- you stop flying at a faster speed. This type of accident most often happens on a landing approach, and is called an approach turn stall. The pilot is descending to land at a slow speed, and he increases his bank angle to line up with the runway, stall speed goes up, the plane stalls, and he augers in.

I think it might have been the same thing for Jose, but on the take off. When you life off you are just above stall speed, and as you accelerate your safety margin increases, because you are going faster. If he put in that right hand turn too quickly, 150 of altitude is pretty quick, he might not have had enough margin above stall speed, so that when he turned the airplane, it stalled, and it nose dived.

I hate to say, this but I do because I've done it-- sometimes it's really cool and "hotshot" if you will, to make that turn right after take off. It really looks cool, and with an afterburner and an ejection seat, it's not that dangerous. Sometimes it's done for practicality, because maybe the course to where he was going was the other way than his take off course, and he wanted to get on course as quickly as possible. Hard to say, but based on the one sentence description that I read, that sounds like the most likely scenario.

The exact thing happened to a very famous baloonist, Ben Abruzzo, in Albuquerque, when I lived there. He took off with some friends for Aspedn, lost one of his engines right after take off, and he turned back toward the airport, but he turned into the dead engine- big mistake. He stalled because he really wrapped up the turn, and crashed immediately.

Sad Sad Sad. He really was one of my favorites, but I have seen this happen so often. Hell, my operations officer in Viet Nam- hundreds of combat missions and carrier landings, killed himself in a Cessna 172 looking at real estate in San Diego, doing the exact same thing. Steepened his turn to look at something, stalled, gonzo.. Many people think something similar happened to JFK jr.

Private planes are nothing to mess around with.


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## Momma's Worry (Aug 3, 2009)

JFK Jr was a novice 100 hour student pilot flying a high performance single engine at night over water in pitch black darkness(instriment conditions)...spacial disorentation...vertigo......lost it and spun-in...taking two trusting people with his inexperenced self.............. d l


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Jammer..Thanks for your explanation. It makes sense. THANKS for your service as well. TW


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

I don't think it was pitch black. I think it was dusk, but with a very hazy horizon, as in no horizon, and the rest of what you said is accurate. 

My theory was in the particular plane he was flying the switch which you use to move from one fuel tank to another is usually down and to the left of the pilot- requiring him to lean down, taking his eyes off the horizon, to move the switch. Part of the landing check list is to make sure you are on the fullest tank. So I think he leaned down to do that while doing his landing check list, came back up, saw no horizon, and not having any instrument training, did just what you said- got disoriented, and very often in a case like that, human nature for an inexperienced pilot is to pull back on the yoke, which makes you stall, and when you stall, you always fall off on one wing or another into a spiral.

We used to practice doing stuff like that in the back seat of a 2 seater with a bag over the canopy so we could not see out. The instructor would put the plane in some unusual attitude, maybe just prior to stalling, and then give control of the plane back to us. We had to look at the instruments only, determine where we were, and what the plane was doing, and return to level flight. With the right training it's a piece of cake. If you've never done it. GONZO.

Tough for all.


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## TOM WEBER (Aug 14, 2005)

Was discussing this with a buddy that just retired from Continental. He reminded me of the Lone Star air museum air show a few years back. A F18 flew over slowly south to north and did a hard right just at or past the causeway and dropped below sight...then we heard an enormous jet roar ( afterburners) and then we saw him climbing out. I was told he stalled when he rolled over 90 degrees to turn and lit burners to get out. I remember losing sight of him wondering what was happening...looked like he was sliding down in his bank. Makes sense now._ guess it can happen to the best pilots. TW_


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