Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Salinas, California 93901
Saturday, March 25, 2006 9:45 PST

The airplane was being operated by the solo private pilot as a visual flight rules (VFR) personal cross-country flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. Witnesses said the pilot arrived at the airport on Friday evening to pickup the accident airplane, which he had just purchased. They said the pilot refused a checkout in the new airplane, and planned to depart after dark, in deteriorating weather conditions, for his home, stating he needed to be home before Monday. Local pilots convinced him to delay his departure until the following morning. The pilot declined a second offer of a checkout in the airplane the following morning. A pilot-rated witness said he spoke with the pilot the morning he departed, while the pilot preflighted and fueled the accident airplane. The witness said he checked local weather via a computer for the pilot. He said weather to the east was not conducive to VFR flight, and he tried to convince the pilot to fly south to avoid the weather and rising terrain to the east. According to the witness, the last thing the pilot asked before leaving was the identifier for an airport to the southeast, which he input into a handheld global positioning system (GPS) unit. The witness said a direct route to that airport would not have taken the pilot far enough south to avoid the weather. The witness said when the airplane departed about 0900, the ceiling was about 1,600 feet above ground level, and the visibility was 5 miles in rain. The airplane wreckage was located east-southeast of the departure airport along an approximate direct route to the airport the pilot entered into the GPS. An FAA aviation safety inspector who visited the accident site, said the airplane impacted in hilly terrain, in a nose low, near vertical attitude. He said the airplane did not pass through brush and low trees located directly behind the wreckage. Photographs taken at the accident site, showed uniform, sharp aft and upward crushing of the entire leading edge of both wings. The empennage was crushed and folded downward, and twisted to the right, consistent with the airplane spinning at impact. The foreman of the ranch where the airplane crashed, reported that on the morning of the accident there was low cloud cover, and three-quarters of a mile visibility in rain.

The pilot's continued flight into known adverse weather, and his failure to maintain sufficient airspeed, which resulted in a loss of control and an inadvertent stall/spin during cruise flight. Factors associated with the accident are a low ceiling with reduced visibility, and an inadvertent stall/spin.