On Oct 18, 8:41 pm, C J Campbell
wrote:
On 2007-10-18 15:48:15 -0700, said:

Preliminary report indicates VFR into IFR and disorientation:

http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/st...-skydiver_plan...

Maybe.

But usually these things are flown on autopilot and autopilots do not
become disoriented that way. I will stick with the icing scenario: it
iced up and the autopilot kept spinning the trim to compensate until it
could not compensate any more. Then they stalled, spun and crashed.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

CJ,

I tend to agree with you, but this will probably be one of those cases
that isn't ever conclusively resolved.

I wonder why he didn't convert to IFR or fly through the gorge if he
wanted to stay VFR... flying into clouds in the Cascades this time of
year is a bad idea unless you have really good anti-ice systems. He
should have either gone over the weather and then descended through
the layer IFR on the West side of the Cascades, or gone under it via
the big green tunnel that is the Columbia River gorge.

Dean