According to the guys a person stalled and spun in on base to final in
an RV and died. It is easy to be fooled at a high altitude
airport. You are close to the ground and your ground speed is
much faster and you might think you are not near stall speed.
It is essential to check your airspeed from time to time.
The other thing that happens is you tend to overshoot the runway heading
on base to final because the radius of turn is more at high altitude
so the tendency is to pull harder.

Paul Lamar

Michael McGee wrote:

I feel like I should jump in here and clarify what we know so far.

The accident occurred on the entry to the downwind for 33.  It was almost
abeam the 15 on the north end.

I was the lead plane of four RV's arriving from Portland at Jackpot
Saturday afternoon.  The RV-6A with the owner/pilot Gary Hanson and RV-6
builder Mike Johnson in the right seat was the number four plane in the
group.  We entered the pattern on a 45 to left downwind for 33.  When I was
about mid field I heard the #3 plane call that Gary had gone in.  Both
pilot and passenger were killed.  He had initiated a steep turn where he
entered the pattern, we don't know why.  All accounts I heard of what
people saw (all pilots, in the air and on the ground) seem to point to an
accelerated stall.  The downwind leg is over higher ground and he wasn't
able to recover in the available altitude.  We had entered the pattern at
about 150 mph IAS as a group of four and we still don't understand how he
managed to pull hard enough and/or get slow enough to do what he
did.  Unfortunately the results seem to speak for themselves.  I am told he
had 500 hours in his plane.

Mike

Mike McGee, RV-4 N996RV, O320-E2G, Aurora, OR

Thanks Mike for correcting the scenario. Perhaps his head
was down in the cockpit for some reason and looked up and saw he 
was too close in. Any frequency or transponder code changes 
at that moment?

Seems unlikely he was over gross after flying 
in from Portland... just to rule out a scenario.
What is the field elevation and pattern altitude?

Paul Lamar

 
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