On January 9, 2006, a Cirrus SR20 crashed at Lancaster, California, during a training flight. The airplane had apparently stalled during an attempt to turn back to the runway after a simulated power loss. The helicopter-rated private pilot and his instructor both died on impact.
The Cirrus had arrived half an hour earlier from Van Nuys, 30 miles south, and had made several touch-and-go landings on Runway 6. The wind was 060 at 10 knots, gusting to 17. Either the pilot or the instructor — the National Transportation Safety Board’s report is ambiguous — then asked the tower for permission to do a low approach and simulate an engine failure during climb-out. This was to be followed by a teardrop turn and a landing on Runway 24. There was no other traffic, and the tower approved the maneuver after calling the pilots’ attention to the gusty wind. The student (or the instructor — there is actually no way to know who was handling the controls) executed the turn successfully, though with the loss of “a significant amount of altitude,” according to the tower controller.
