Azalea Saberwing | N121DF

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be a loss of speed awareness which occurred during the turn from left downwind to left base. A witness, located at the airport, described seeing the airplane while it was on the downwind
leg for runway 35 at a low altitude when it made the base leg turn. Witnesses located in a housing community about 0.6 miles south of the airport saw the airplane heading south, turn left, when the left wing dropped, and the airplane turned upside
down. One witness saw the airplane spin about one and a half revolutions before it descended out of their sight behind a house. It is unclear at this time what caused the temporary loss of speed awareness to occur.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft rehearse and condition themselves to be more vigilant of DMMS and to honor it. Below 2500 AGL, the limitations are a maximum bank of 30 degrees, and minimum speed of DMMS until on wings level final, where an aircraft can be slowed to Vref.