Early report out on crash that killed pilot at Oakdale Airport

A preliminary report on the March 11 crash at the Oakdale Airport that killed pilot Leon Shaeffer offers little new information on the incident, but the former owner of the plane offered some insight on how the experimental aircraft handled.

Shaeffer, a 78-year-old Modesto resident, had been flying his Challenger II CWS in the area for about 30 minutes before crashing into his parked pickup during a hard landing of the single-engine, fixed-wing plane.

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board states that “the airplane landed in the runway safety area, leaving tire tracks about 200 feet in length in the dirt and gravel. The tracks veered left towards the visual approach slope indicator, continued over the taxiway and terminated” where the plane hit the truck near a hangar.

The report notes the plane’s registration was not updated. It had been registered under previous owner Allan Roff, from whom Shaeffer bought in in September. “This is not an issue that affects the airworthiness of the aircraft,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

Determining cause of the crash – whether mechanical, pilot error, medical or other – could take 12 to 18 months, an NTSB spokesman said days after the incident.

“I don’t know what could have happened,” Roff told The Bee. The plane “did have its annual inspection just before he bought the plane. It was in good condition. I have been working with the FAA providing them all the information I can to try and help them understand what might have gone wrong. I have sent them a lot of pictures of the aircraft that I had and a few videos I’m hoping that will give them a good understanding of the plane in the condition that it was in when I had it.”

The Sacramento resident said all planes have their own flight characteristics. Cessna 150s, 152s and 172s, for example, are very predictable when it comes to their characteristics. “But if you go from a plane like that into flying a Challenger II, you’re in for an eye-opener. They are not as stable as what you are used to flying – they are more hands-on flying.”

Roff said that while Shaeffer had about three hours of transition time with an instructor qualified on the Challenger II, he suspects that was not enough, even with the Modesto man’s many years of flying experience. “They do not fly the same as a GA (general aviation) aircraft, they take some getting used to,” Roff said. “When I bought the aircraft, I went through transition training also coming from a Cessna aircraft, and it is a very different-feeling aircraft to fly.”

Shaeffer had logged almost 2,000 hours of flight time as a commercial and private pilot and flight instructor, Swick said.

The FAA registry of airmen indicates Shaeffer’s last medical certification was in July of 2013, but Swick said because the Challenger II is classified as a light sport aircraft, medical certification was not required.

“The FAA looks at nine specific factors in all of our accident investigations,” Gregor said. “One of these is the qualifications of the pilot, including whether the pilot had a current biennial flight review. I cannot comment on Mr. Shaffer while the investigation is ongoing.”

Pilots have to undergo biennial check rides with FAA examiners or FAA designees, Gregor said, to show they are proficient.

Witnesses to the crash told police there may have been engine trouble prior to landing.

Johnny Freitas, a contractor working on a house on nearby Wren Road, said he saw the plane coming in slowly before making a landing he described as “a little hard.”

“I noticed something odd about that plane ... he was coming in slow, “ Freitas said at the time. “He landed very close to the edge of the runway when he came in, bounced a few times and then it looked like he had control, so I went back to work. Then I heard a bang, and that’s when we saw some smoke ... .”

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Early report out on crash that killed pilot at Oakdale Airport."