Stall / Spin · NTSB ANC24FA085
PIPER PA-18-150 — McGrath, AK
| Date | August 31, 2024 |
| Location | McGrath, AK |
| Aircraft | PIPER PA-18-150 |
| Purpose of flight | Business |
| Conditions | Day · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Unknown Aerodynamic stall/spin |
| Pilot age | 58 |
| Pilot total time | 4,269 hrs · High time |
| Time in type | Unknown |
| Fatalities | 1 |
Probable cause
NTSB findings
- Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Attain/maintain not possible
- Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
He'd flown this ridge for years. The first pass of the season killed him.
A veteran Alaska bush pilot flew out to a 2,500-foot ridge to drop supplies to a hunting guide below. He had landed on this ridge in past seasons — but this was his first approach to it this year. The guide watched him make several low, slow passes, then begin a right turn from base toward final.
Then the Super Cub dropped out of sight behind the ridgeline. The guide could no longer see it, but he could still hear it. Twice, he heard the engine "call for a lot of power." Seconds later came the sound of impact.
Investigators found the airplane nearly vertical and nose-down — the unmistakable signature of a stall/spin. The engine showed no malfunction, and a full examination found nothing broken. The wing simply exceeded its critical angle of attack at an altitude too low to recover.
How the chain formed
- First approach of the season to a known-but-not-recently-flown ridge, with no margin to re-learn the sight picture.
- Slow and low while maneuvering to land — the most dangerous combination in flying.
- A right turn from base to final, where overbanking or skidding to tighten the turn quietly raises stall speed.
- Power applied late: the engine 'calling for power' twice suggests the pilot recognized the sink, but there was no altitude left to recover.
The lesson
How you avoid this
- Respect the base-to-final turn: keep it coordinated and shallow, and never rush or skid it to fix an overshoot — go around instead.
- Fly angle of attack, not just airspeed. In a bank your stall speed rises, and an AoA indicator earns its keep here.
- On the first approach to any site, fly it high first to re-learn the picture with altitude beneath you.
- Accept that at low altitude there is no recovery — the only fix is prevention: speed, coordination, and an escape route.
Read the official NTSB narrative
The airplane departed from a remote hunting camp and traveled to a 2,500-ft ridge about 3.5 miles away to drop off supplies to a hunting guide; the pilot was planning to continue to an airport for fuel. According to the guide who was at the scene of the accident, the airplane flew over their camp several times before flying further up the ridge, where it executed several passes over the ridge. While the pilot had landed on this ridge in seasons past, this would have been his first time landing on the ridge this year.
The guide reported that winds near the accident site were about 15 mph from the northeast and the visibility was good. He reported that the airplane was traveling slow and low on a southwest heading and began a right turn to the northeast. As the airplane began what the guide thought to be a right base to final turn, he lost sight of the airplane. However, the guide reported that he could still hear the airplane’s engine. He reported hearing the engine “call for a lot of power” twice and a few seconds later he heard the airplane impact the ground.
The airplane was found nose down in a near-vertical attitude on a northeast heading on the south side of the ridge. The wings remained partially attached and the tail was bent slightly to the right. The wreckage pattern of the airplane was consistent with the airplane impacting the ground during a stall/spin.
The pilot and owner of the accident airplane had incorporated modifications to the airplane, including leading edge slats and slotted two-piece flaps. The leading edge slats were removed a few months before the accident. Although these modifications allowed for lower airspeeds during landing and altered the stall characteristics of the airplane, the investigation was not able to determine if the changed flight characteristics might have played a role in the experienced pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack while maneuvering.
A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the available information, it is likely that the pilot exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack while maneuvering for landing, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and loss of control.