In August 2015, a Florence, South Carolina, doctor, 51, left his home field early in the morning on a vacation trip whose eventual destination was the Grand Canyon. He was flying his 1963 Beech B33 Debonair, which he had owned since 2008. His first stop was to be Hot Springs, Arkansas, 689 nm distant, but shortly after taking off he amended his IFR clearance to swing southward around a line of weather. He later changed his destination to El Dorado, Arkansas.
Arriving at El Dorado, he was cleared for the GPS approach to Runway 4, but on breaking out he canceled IFR and circled to land on Runway 31. The wind was 17 gusting to 25 from 010 degrees and the field was VFR with scattered clouds at 1,900 feet and an overcast layer at 3,600. The last recorded radar return came at a location southwest of the field and about 2½ miles out. At that point, the airplane had been airborne for five hours and 36 minutes, and had traveled 722 nm.
