Los Angeles radio tower crash kills 2

PJ Hunt wrote:

Well I can't answer that question with 100% certainty but I do know the
Fullerton Airport was founded in the late 20's, and an educated guess would
be that KFI wasn't around at that time.

Anyone here know when the tower was erected?

1948

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 11:31:23 GMT, James Robinson
wrote in ::

PJ Hunt wrote:

Well I can't answer that question with 100% certainty but I do know the
Fullerton Airport was founded in the late 20's, and an educated guess would
be that KFI wasn't around at that time.

Anyone here know when the tower was erected?

1948

The story of the installation of the tower is he
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/sta...20C.%20ANTHONY

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:18:55 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote in ::

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 11:31:23 GMT, James Robinson
wrote in ::

PJ Hunt wrote:

Well I can't answer that question with 100% certainty but I do know the
Fullerton Airport was founded in the late 20's, and an educated guess would
be that KFI wasn't around at that time.

Anyone here know when the tower was erected?

1948

The story of the installation of the tower is he
http://www.oldradio.com/archives/sta...20C.%20ANTHONY


Photograph of KFI transmitter towers he
http://www.fybush.com/site-020320.html
Another tower photo he
http://img.groundspeak.com/benchmark/lg/74545_200.jpg


City of Fullerton Airport Advisory Committee request to KFI that
strobe lights be placed on the tower March 22, 2001:
http://www.ci.fullerton.ca.us/airpor...tes032201.html

MANAGER'S AIRPORT UPDATE
Rod called the engineer at KFI regarding adding strobe lights to
the KFI tower. The strobe lights were taken out of their budget. They
will paint the Tower and replace the guy wires. Rod suggested this
Committee approve a resolution and send it to KFI, emphasizing the
reduction in liability to KFI with the addition of strobe lights. This
will be an item on the next agenda.

"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
PJ Hunt wrote:

Well I can't answer that question with 100% certainty but I do know the
Fullerton Airport was founded in the late 20's, and an educated guess
would
be that KFI wasn't around at that time.

Anyone here know when the tower was erected?


1948


I have a San Diego sectional dated August 12, 1943. It depicts radio
station KFI by call letters and frequency at the present-day location of the
tower. There had to be a tower of some kind there prior to 1948.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"James Robinson" wrote in message
...
PJ Hunt wrote:

Well I can't answer that question with 100% certainty but I do know the
Fullerton Airport was founded in the late 20's, and an educated guess
would
be that KFI wasn't around at that time.

Anyone here know when the tower was erected?


1948


I have a San Diego sectional dated August 12, 1943. It depicts radio
station KFI by call letters and frequency at the present-day location of the
tower. There had to be a tower of some kind there prior to 1948.

KFI relocated to the present site from LA in 1931 under the "clear
channel" concept. (Not to be confused with the company of the same name,
clear channel originally meant that they were the only station on a
particular frequency in the entire country, and could broadcast at very
high power.) They were the first 50kW station on the west coast.

They originally had a pair of smaller towers, about 400' high, which had
the antenna strung between. The higher full radiating 750' tower was
built in 1947/48. They also have a secondary 250' tower. I don't know
when it was built.

My condolences to the grieving family members and friends
..
I attribute this accident to pilot error. I've flown the pattern at
Fullerton a few times. I 've never had any trouble locating the tower on
the way in and I'm not local to the airport. Paraphrasing the AIM, or
maybe the FARs, don't go where you don't know.....
How many times has the tower been struck by an airplane? This accident
is sensational because it is being made so.

"Casey Wilson" wrote in message
news:mw_xd.6483$L7.518@trnddc05...

How many times has the tower been struck by an airplane?

Apparently this is the first time. A site describing a tour of the
transmitter indicates one of the guy cables was once struck by an airplane
but the tower never had.

http://www.qsl.net/ad7db/kfi.html

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:08:02 GMT, "Casey Wilson"
wrote in mw_xd.6483$L7.518@trnddc05::

How many times has the tower been struck by an airplane?

While researching, I read of only one other aircraft impacting a guy
wire.

Maybe there was some differnt among your experience and the accident
condition.
At the time of accident,
1. Runway 6 is in use (which is seldomly used,only during Santa Ana
wind days)
2. It was around 9:40 AM Bright sunshine from the south-east.
3. Pilot flew from El Monte (from the north, went south-east bound to
FUL).
3a. He had to go under the LAX glide slope. So he had to keep low.
3b. Due to the wall of mountains (Rose Hills) lies north of the FUL
(sit from east to west), he had to fly the bigger none standard left
base pattern
instead of standard 45 degree entry.

As you can see, it was a straight path between the sun, tower and the
plane. He never got a chance to spot the tower since he flew so low and
sun was so low (not a single cloud that day. I took off minutes after
he departed). Had he alter the altitude, the direction, or the tower
had some strobe light, it won't be such tragic ending.

-cpu

Casey Wilson wrote:
My condolences to the grieving family members and friends
.
I attribute this accident to pilot error. I've flown the
pattern at
Fullerton a few times. I 've never had any trouble locating the
tower on
the way in and I'm not local to the airport. Paraphrasing the AIM,
or
maybe the FARs, don't go where you don't know.....
How many times has the tower been struck by an airplane? This
accident
is sensational because it is being made so.