Tom Dafoe (right) and son Will in front of the family Cessna 140 in Lubbock Texas. [FLYING Archive]
Key Takeaways:
The NTSB's preliminary report on a fatal crash at the MayDay STOL Drag competition details the death of experienced pilot Tom Dafoe.
Dafoe received two radio warnings about flying too slow before his 1946 Cessna 140 pitched up, rolled right, and entered an unrecoverable spin at 300 feet agl.
The accident occurred during an informal traditional STOL pickup match, not part of the official competition, which had been postponed due to gusting winds.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report this week on the fatal crash at the MayDay STOL Drag competition at Wayne Municipal-Stan Morris Field (KLCG) in Wayne, Nebraska.
According to the report, before crashing, the pilot received two warnings to lower the nose of the aircraft because it appeared to be flying too slow.
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
