Guys,
Given the cramped cockpit of that plane and the position of the fuel switch it would have been almost impossible to reach over the left shoulder with the right hand to turn the shaft without pushing off the right rudder pedal and according to witnesses that is exactly the way the plane went down, a quick dive to the right. Also the control valve was setup whereas turning the valve left opened the right tank and turning the valve right opened the left tank! This is certainly not the standard where turning the valve left opens the left tank and vice versa. I'm pretty sure that if the switch was turned over to one side I would have just turned it to the other side! The plane was at less than 500ft when the problems occured... so there wasn't much room to play when the ocean was coming up fast! He crashed into the ocean off the coast of California, not powerlines!
The lady that was John's neighbor lived in the house next door on the upside of the hill, not behind him. She said there were several "crazies" living around there. In ASPEN? I could only imagine. She said John was a nice guy but could be a little weird sometimes... go figure! I still believe his demise was a loss to the music community. I've got slides around here somewhere(not JDenver,just his property) ...just don't know where!
Nikonut /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif