The father of Lake Placid kayak instructor, Adirondack guide and magazine editor Anne Brewer died Thursday in a plane crash in a remote area in the western Adirondacks.

Police say Schiele “Bill” Brewer, 76, crashed his small, single-engine plane in the water of Stillwater Reservoir, near where his family has a camp at Beaver River Station. The plane took off from Boonville in neighboring Oneida County on Thursday morning.

Crews from the Federal Aviation Administration are expected to arrive today to investigate the crash.

Anne Brewer described her father as an avid and very experienced pilot.

“He’s been a pilot his entire life,” she told the Enterprise this morning. “He (flew) small aircraft and was there practicing touch-and-gos and just checking on the place.”

Brewer said her father was flying a new plane that was equipped with pontoons to land on the reservoir.

“I think he just had a landing that came in at the wrong angle,” she said. “We don’t know the details exactly, but the indication is that it probably happened on practice landing. The aircraft is not an ultralight, but it’s a very light aircraft. It’s just a little trickier to fly than your standard Cessna or something else. So if it he did have a little bit of a rough landing, that plane doesn’t take it as well as a different plane would have.”

Scott Thompson, owner of Norridgewock Lodge in Beaver River, told Watertown-based television station WWNY the accident occurred a half-mile from his lodge and that he was the first person on the scene.

“The plane had damage,” Thompson said. “It had been there a long time, and we could just see sneakers and legs.”

Thompson told the station he knew Bill Brewer well and recently hosted Anne’s wedding to state Forest Ranger Pete Evans at the lodge.

Anne Brewer said her family has had a camp at the east end of Stillwater Reservoir for 43 years. She said she wrote an article about the camp for the next issue of LocalADK magazine, which is scheduled to come out next week.

She said her father was an ophthalmologist in Oneida and Rome, a retired colonel from the Air Force reserves and had served as a city commissioner in Sherrill. He was also part owner of the Boonville airport and a member of a flying club called the Quiet Birdmen, Anne said.

He’s survived by his wife, seven children and 15 grandchildren.

Brewer said funeral services for her father will likely take place early next week.