Anatomy of a Cirrus Stall Accident

Wow that was strange that they did a right spin/snap on a left base to final turn. I would expect to see a skidding turn with not left bank but gobs of left rudder instead of a slipping turn with lots of left bank and too much right rudder. They explained what happened very well by showing the airplane snap roll to the right from a left turn. Too me it looks like coordination was just the initial problem but the major mess up was not unloading the stick when rolling upright.

people stall in the pattern at 10 degrees? maybe they were going at a very low airspeed that's why.

exactly. Most GA aircraft are designed to stall at 10 to 15 degrees i believe. You would be surprised how easy it is to get too slow on the pattern when your looking at the runway for positioning or something distracts you. million things

And this was with an instructor on board, below pattern height and over banking low the the ground WTF

@Handymanherb, so damn right. I learnt this from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 back in 2000 in the Pilot's Handbook that came with the game...Rod Machado says that landings should use very extremely light aileron inputs,..

i can't believe a flight instructor would approve this!!

@SeanKReilly: Yup, Cirrus has no AoA sensor, but it does record flight parameters from the Avidyne PFD, then the NTSB validated the flight scenario with test flights and calculated the AoA for various portions of the wing. Amazing effort by NTSB to understand it all.

I own/fly a Cirrus SR20 and a Yak 55. Certainly sounds like they did a snap (loads of fun at altitude - bad news in the pattern). A snap on the horizonal even at that altitude might have been recoverable if they knew the recovery sequence. Not sure that the Cirrus would respond quickly enough or if a recovery would not have put them into a stall/spin. That said, low alt is no place to yank and bank, especially if you're not familiar with what your aircraft will do under the curcumstances.

That still wouldn't give you angle of attack - though maybe something close to it, if you assume a stationary airmass. I have hundreds of hours in the SR22 and can promise you there is no AoA sensor on the airplane.

Experienced SR22/ATP pilot here. Sad and preventable accident. People tend to get into a Cirrus and think they're in an F16, think "glass cockpit, sidestick, etc:...which, in my experience, can lead to overestimation of the aircraft. The Cirrus is a wonderful aircraft, but it demands just as much respect as any other flying machine. Let's all keep learning what NOT to do as well as what TO do. RIP, aviators.

True, the 30 degrees of bank assumes you're flying the airplane correctly in the first place. You can be straight and level and yank it into a stall, or if you're stretching the glide in an engine out situation; the 30 degrees of bank is a general rule to keep people from yanking and banking themselves at what would usually be a safe airspeed into a stall/spin below 1000' AGL.