On a December evening, a turboprop Piper Meridian climbed out of Cody, Wyoming, for a 300-mile flight to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The flight must have been a pleasant one for the private pilot, 42, an orthopedic surgeon who lived in Steamboat Springs. He had a 40-knot tailwind at 25,000 feet and made a groundspeed of more than 300 knots. When he left Cody, Steamboat was reporting 4,500 broken and 7 miles. Every reporting station along the route was VFR. The forecast for his arrival called for VFR conditions with some light snow in the vicinity and some mountain obscuration to the east.
It was dark when he approached Steamboat Springs. Cleared for the RNAV (GPS)-E approach for Runway 32 at Bob Adams Field (KSBS), he began his descent 20 minutes out, turned eastward at the initial approach fix, HABRO, and then northward at MABKY intersection.
