WATSONVILLE - Relatives and Santa Cruz County coroner's officials say the pilot who died in the crash of his small experimental plane near Watsonville was a 58-year-old lawyer from Atherton.

Pilot Gary Lampert had been flying for 20 years and had thousands of hours of experience, his brother David Lampert said Sunday.

Gary Lampert radioed air traffic controllers in Oakland on Saturday and said the engine of his home-built Lancair Legacy plane was on fire. He had been bound for San Carlos Airport but tried to make it instead to Watsonville Airport. He crashed in an apple orchard before he could make it.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says Lampert did not file a flight plan and it was not clear he took off from.

FAA investigators were at the crash site Sunday.