At 10:34 PST, a homebuilt Pitts S1X crashed while performing an aerobatic routine at an airshow at Cable Airport. The pilot was killed. Witnesses said the pilot dove into the aerobatic box, performed three snap rolls to the right and recovered. The second time he entered the box, the pilot performed three snap rolls to the left, and, as he rotated about of the way around on the third to fourth snap roll, he seemed to experience what witnesses called some sort of problem. The pilot arrested the snap roll and transitioned into an upright flat spin. At that point, the pilot pulled the power back to idle. In the second turn of the spin, the airplane was about 200 to 300 feet agl. The witnesses said the pilot did not have sufficient altitude to recover.
Jan. 8, Upland, Calif. / Pitts S1X
At 10:34 PST, a homebuilt Pitts S1X crashed while performing an aerobatic routine at an airshow at Cable Airport. The pilot was killed. Witnesses said the pilot dove into the aerobatic box, performed three snap rolls to the right and recovered. The second time he entered the box, the pilot performed three snap rolls to the left, and, as he rotated about of the way around on the third to fourth snap roll, he seemed to experience what witnesses called some sort of problem. The pilot arrested the snap roll and transitioned into an upright flat spin. At that point, the pilot pulled the power back to idle. In the second turn of the spin, the airplane was about 200 to 300 feet agl. The witness...
Key Takeaways:
- A homebuilt Pitts S1X crashed during an aerobatic routine at an airshow, resulting in the pilot's fatality.
- The accident occurred after the pilot experienced a problem during a series of snap rolls, which transitioned the aircraft into an upright flat spin.
- Witnesses observed the pilot pulling power to idle, noting the aircraft lacked sufficient altitude (200-300 feet AGL) for recovery from the spin.
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