According to the pilot’s own account, he and his lady friend were on a weekend jaunt to Saline Hot Springs, a tiny, rather charming clothing-optional oasis located in the middle of nowhere on the eastern edge of Death Valley in California. He approached the 1,350-foot gravel and rock “Chicken Strip” at 60 knots in his Grumman Yankee, landing uphill, as recommended. Something went wrong, and the Yankee came to rest upside down at the far end of the strip. The pilot broke out what was left of his side of the canopy, and he and his friend crawled out, uninjured. The airplane, however, was a total loss.
That happened in June 2016. Seven months later, the pilot flew his other airplane, a Mooney M20, into a mountainside in southern California.
