Extra 300 down, Keystone FL

Hate to hear that…Condolences to all involved.
 
That’s terrible. So sorry for your loss. Condolences to his family and friends.
 
Very sorry for you, Ed, and especially his family.
 
He must have been low to start with. The Extra recovers from spins (both flat and normal - upright and inverted) pretty easily - if you have enough altitude. I accidentally wound up in an inverted spin in my Pitts once. I was practicing new maneuvers and was a good 6,000' AGL. I lost 3,000' in the recovery even though the process was straightforward once I realized I was in an inverted spin, not an upright one. Altitude is our friend. I never pursued a low altitude waiver because of my scary spin recovery experience.
 
He entered the maneuver from the top of the IAC competition box. A 1.5 turn inverted spin is maneuver #2 in the 2025 Advanced known sequence. His altitude profile is consistent with a deliberate entry. I will not speculate on cause, but his operations were well within the norm for a competitor at his level.

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Ed, condolences. Prayers and good throughts for you, the family, and the community.
 
Ed Haywood said:
He entered the maneuver from the top of the IAC competition box. A 1.5 turn inverted spin is maneuver #2 in the 2025 Advanced known sequence. His altitude profile is consistent with a deliberate entry. I will not speculate on cause, but his operations were well within the norm for a competitor at his level.
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Well, that information changes things! If he was in an IAC competition and this was a required maneuver in the Known Sequence, then certainly there was ample altitude to recover. I assume all other competitors completed the maneuver without incident. Perhaps a mechanical prevented the plane from recovering like the accident that took Rob Holland. Hopefully, the NTSB will come up with an explanation. I'm sorry I assumed the pilot was just out playing around. Most of the acro I've seen performed around here has not been part of an IAC contest, or practice for an IAC contest. Some of that activity has been well below a prudent altitude and that has lowered my opinion of a lot of aerobatic pilots. I realize that what I see day in and day out has no direct bearing on any specific incident that happens in aviation, it just influences my initial perceptions. No offense intended.
 
Crap. I've met Warren. About 3 years ago (actually, the day after Christmas), we were taking the RV-10 to S. Florida and experienced a mag failure en-route. I hunted down "the mechanic" who was working on a bunch of aerobatic aircraft at the field and he repaired the mag and got us on our way. Super nice guy. I'm pretty sure his wife was who loaned my wife and son her car so they could find something to eat while Warren and I wrenched on the airplane. Damn.
 
kyleb said:
Crap. I've met Warren. About 3 years ago (actually, the day after Christmas), we were taking the RV-10 to S. Florida and experienced a mag failure en-route. I hunted down "the mechanic" who was working on a bunch of aerobatic aircraft at the field and he repaired the mag and got us on our way. Super nice guy. I'm pretty sure his wife was who loaned my wife and son her car so they could find something to eat while Warren and I wrenched on the airplane. Damn.
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Yep, Warren was a very nice guy, a skilled pilot, and a superb A&P. Many of the top unlimited aerobatic pilots in the country had him maintain their aircraft.
 
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