The private pilot was landing his Piper PA22 at his home airport in Island Pond, Vermont, at the conclusion of a local flight.
The plane was last seen flying normally on the left downwind leg of the airport traffic pattern. The wreckage was discovered in a location consistent with a turn from the downwind to base leg of the traffic pattern. The pilot died in the crash.
The airplane and engine sustained extensive impact damage and post-impact fire damage.
A friend of the pilot, who flew with him often, said that the pilot tended to turn from the downwind leg onto the base leg of the traffic pattern “quite steep” (about 40° bank) and slow (62-63 knots).
The friend said he shared his concerns about stalling with the pilot, but the pilot did not share the same concern.
The airplane was not equipped with a stall warning horn or angle of attack indicator.
Given the amount of fuel onboard and the duration of the flight, it is unlikely that the airplane ran out of fuel.
Although there were no witnesses to the accident, given the location of the accident site, lack of preimpact mechanical anomalies, and the pilot’s reported habit of conducting traffic pattern turns at a slow speed in a steep bank, it is likely that the pilot exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack while maneuvering for landing, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent impact with terrain.
Probable cause: The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack while maneuvering for landing, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
NTSB Identification: ERA18FA232
This August 2018 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
I do the cursory 1 or 2 stalls on a biennial to humor the instructor….to demonstrate the plane still knows how!😁
I don’t practice stalls because in 45 years I’ve never seen a reason to stall an aircraft.
I’ll bet you would be surprised at how “humored” your instructor actually is. Can you handle your airplane in slow flight and make consistent and safe short-field landings? Will you be able to do that while making a dead-stick off-airport landing?
During a biennial, you “humor” your instructor. LOL – sure you do.
Pure classic case of the most dangerous turn in aviation. An AoA meter solves this problem if you want to push the envelope of low, steep and slow.
To quote Chuck Yeager..
“That’s a stupid instrument. It shows you your angle of attack. If you don’t know your angle of attack, you shouldn’t be flyin”
I think gbigs is correct. Yes, fly by visuals… if you have them. IMHO, flyin’ by the seat of the pants (another excuse for dumping all the “stupid instrument[s]” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be for every situation. An AOA instrument on the glare shield is a very useful redundancy for ASI + AH + visuals, and sometimes more useful than looking for a well enough defined wing tip to ground bank angle or a cowl based bank angle + ASI + visuals to infer AOA..
More stupid pilot tricks. If you push the performance limits, eventually you’ll exceed them and pay the penalty.
The PA22 stall speed is 46 kts. At a 40 degree bank the stall speed is 1.305 x, or 60 kts.
So, close to stall in a steep turn, and too low to recover….. sad.
This is a turf runway with 3 aircraft based there, in northern VT….
If you hold altitude, but if in a descent from base to final…no stall.
These types of slow, fully configured, traffic pattern turns are done every day in the mountain backcountry of Idaho and elsewhere. If done correctly…success. Another snapshot of life.
“If you hold altitude, but if in a descent from base to final…no stall.”
Absolutely correct and something that is usually left out of the discussion. Watch any military fighter break to landing and one will see how it’s done. If a pilot is properly trained and understands what they are doing, this is a perfectly safe way to get down quickly.
Yeh…fighter pilot landing….get those tires plopped down post haste and apply brakes…forget that wallowing, not seeing over the panel prior to touchdown…screw that tire wear…done!!
This guy was in a descending turn, [ normal for a turn to base ], , and did stall….so ?