Tonight on Twitter, the managing editor of Wake Forest’s SB Nation site tweeted out a flight tracker that showed a flight inbound to Muncie from Winston-Salem. The reaction on social media was swift and decisive that on that plane was Wake Forest administrators ready to sign, seal, and deliver Pete Lembo to the Demon Deacons. As fate would have it, that’s likely not the case at all.
Friend of the Pylon Bob Phelps reached out to a source that is a private pilot in the Indianapolis area to see what could be made of this information and whether the narrative being passed around was a legitimate one. Here was the pilot’s take on the matter:
“That’s a demo plane by the aircraft manufacturer and Muncie Airport, odd as it sounds, has a fairly decent sales department for planes like this one. Plus, it’s headed back to an airport that’s a maintenance base for that particular model. I use to fly it. Just my guess though.
The plane is still registered to the aircraft manufacturer and only has a handful of flights on it since imported from Switzerland. It’s history shows a few flights around the country, but it’s headed to Rock Hill SC right now. That’s a big maintenance and sales office for the manufacturer. Muncie is a BIG dealer for a model similar to this but smaller. Could be someone bumping up in size. Dunno. But if it’s Wake Forest’s, they’d have JUST bought it. But the registration still shows manufacturer owned. Plus, it’s only had one flight from Winston-Salem ever. So could be coincidence, although be it a nutty one.
I think that if Lembo goes, this flight won’t be involved. That’s my professional opinion. there are tons of planes in and out of Salem and really, quite a bit out of Muncie too. I think it’s just a weird coincidence. But could be wrong. But I doubt it.”
So for this to be Wake’s plane, they would have had to have just bought it or borrowed it from someone who just did. They’d also need to figure out how they would be getting back to Winston-Salem from Rock Hill, SC at 1 in the morning since the registered flight plan isn’t taking it back. So in short, a plane did go from Winston-Salem to Muncie, but it most likely had nothing to do with a football coach. So there’s that.
You can follow Bob on Twitter at @BSUPhan. More on this as it develops.
Filed under: BallStateFootball |
Over The Pylon 
Based on recent developments, as reported by the Star Press, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be a passenger on this guy’s plane!
Me: “Do we have enough fuel.”
Pilot: “Oh, yeah. We’ve got plenty. I mean, we could run out of gas. But I doubt it.”
Early frontrunner for Comment of the Year.
In fairness to Bob’s source, the folks I talked to agreed with him. They didn’t have any knowledge of this specific plane or flight, just thought it seemed odd. If the Wake AD’s goal was to throw the scent off until everything was done, then mission accomplished somewhat.