Denver was anxious to fly his new kit plane

His buddies tried to coax him into another round of golf. But after five hours and 18 holes, John Denver couldn't be persuaded. He was anxious to try out his new plane.

"They finished and were at the clubhouse debating it," said Dale Taylor, assistant pro at the Spyglass Hill Golf Course. "John said, `I'd love to play but I got a new plane. I'm going to practice my landings and takeoffs.' "Three hours later on Sunday afternoon, after three touch-and-go landings on the Monterey Peninsula Airport runway, Denver's single-engine, red-white-and-blue experimental craft plunged into the Pacific Ocean, killing the 53-year-old singer instantly.

Radio and television stations nationwide on Monday played snippets of his sunny songs from the '70s such as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Sunshine on My Shoulders."

Records show Denver bought the 10-year-old, Y-shaped Long EZ plane a day earlier from a man in Santa Maria, Calif., whose identity was not known, then flew to Monterey, George Petterson of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.

On Sunday he practiced landings, then told the air traffic tower he'd fly for another hour.

Denver apparently was distracted by his plane's transponder, which lets a pilot key in a signal to the tower for radio identification. His first signal wasn't picked up, Petterson said, so he tried again.

"His last words were, `Do you have it now?"' he said.

Shortly before 5:30 p.m., the plane plummeted about 500 feet into Monterey Bay. Several witnesses reported hearing a "popping" sound before the crash.

Petterson said finding the crash's exact cause will take at least six months. Much of the destroyed craft has been recovered, and divers hope to raise the engine Tuesday from 50 feet of water.

Home-built aircraft enthusiasts remained loyal to the experimental plane that Denver flew to his death despite a string of accidents in recent years.

Long EZ aircraft such as Denver's were in 61 accidents reported to the National Transportation Safety Board between 1983 and 1996, with a total of 21 people killed, according to Canard Aviators, a group of home-built plane fliers based in Salisbury, Md.

The Long EZ, designed by Burt Rutan in the late 1970s, can be built from a relatively inexpensive kit and set of blueprints. Despite the accidents, private pilots are drawn by the craft's performance and ease of construction.