NTSB Factual Report

On July 11, 2003, approximately 1455 Pacific daylight time, an experimental Archer S-18T, N102PM, impacted the surface of the runway during a low-level base-to-final turn at Arlington Municipal Airport, Arlington, Washington. The private pilot and his passenger were not injured, but the aircraft, which is owned and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal pleasure flight, which departed Scappoose Industrial Airport, Scappoose, Oregon, about 55 minutes earlier, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed. There was no report of an ELT activation.

According to the pilot, who was arriving at Arlington less than ten minutes prior to the time the field was to be closed for an air show, the tower instructed him to turn base early in order to sequence him in front of an aircraft he was in trail of. Although he was instructed to turn base early so that he could land adjacent to a set of cones set near mid-field, the pilot did not see the cones most of the time he was on base leg. He said that while on base he did not see the cones until the last minute, and when he did, he initiated his turn to final. At the point he started the turn, he was approximately 50 feet above the surface, and because he was so close to the runway, he steepened his turn to near 60 degrees of bank. During the turn the airplane stalled and rolled to a position where the wings where 90 degrees to the ground. The pilot then released back pressure, applied corrective rudder and aileron, and was able to get the wings level, but almost immediately thereafter the aircraft impacted the surface of the runway with sufficient force to result in substantial damage.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot's failure to maintain an airspeed above Vs (stalling speed) while making a close-in base-to-final turn.