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" Heavy wind cut down the room Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle had to make an already tight U-turn by about a third in what turned out to be his final flight last month, officials at the National Transportation Safety Board reported today. Confirming what private pilot and PM contributing editor Jeff Wise told us after re-tracing Lidle&amp;#039;s flight path over New York City&amp;#039;s East River, the safety board said Lidle and his instructor, Tyler Stanger, did not file a flight plan on take-off from Teterboro, N.J., but that visibility on the cloudy Oct. 11 afternoon was not a major issue.  Radar data, however, show that prevailing 13-knot winds reduced Lidle&amp;#039;s available width for a 180-degree turn from 1,700 feet to 1,300 feet (the maximum clearance between buildings on either end of the river is 2,100 feet). At Lidle&amp;#039;s airspeed, such a width would have required an extremely sharp turn at a &amp;quot;constant bank angle&amp;quot; of 53 degrees\u2014an aggressive move that the NTSB report implies Lidle could not make, leaving his Cirrus SR-20 &amp;quot;dangerously close to an aerodynamic stall.&amp;quot; The NTSB interviewed eye-witnesses and police like PM did on the day of the crash, but the independent government agency is still awaiting information from two portable GPS units and a laptop pulled from the wreckage before making a final ruling. Investigators said the airplane&amp;#039;s propeller and engine were totally functional and that there was no sign of a fire or structural damage during flight, but the NTSB did re-enforce the grounding of all small planes in the East River corridor. &amp;quot;[Prohibiting flight in the area without clearance] will prevent pilots from encountering a situation in which they must attempt a complete u-turn in order to avoid entry into a controlled airspace.&amp;quot; \u2013Matt Sullivan The view from a private airplane like Cory Lidle&amp;#039;s, heading over Governor&amp;#039;s Island at the southern tip of Manhattan and heading to the right for the north-bound flight over the East River. PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF WISE (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Two NYPD Traffic officers watch over the intersection of 72nd Street and 1st Avenue Oct. 11 as the building Cory Lidle crashed into looms over them. PHOTOGRAPH BY MATT SULLIVAN (CLICK TO ENLARGE) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a1017/4201087/>