Aeronca 7AC | N1846E

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be Pilot Error, in that the accident pilot elected to give an airplane ride during day VFR weather conditions, where the forward visibility was severely reduced due to haze and Canadian fire smoke in the area. The aircraft was at around 400 feet AGL and turning from left downwind to left base for runway 09 at Hinckley airport when the accident pilot likely lost sight of both the runway and the horizon at about the same time, and was distracted in looking for a small home made parachute that the 3 year old passenger had dropped.. The accident pilot may have also started lose track of his heading without clear visual ground contact and became both uncoordinated, too slow, and pulling aft on the controls while allowing aircraft speed to decay well below DMMS, whereupon a stall and one half turn spin occurred. The aircraft wreckage was located approximately 2500 feet northwest of the approach end of runway 09, and about 1200 feet north of the runway 09 extended centerline.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft avoid VFR flights during night and during periods of low visibility where inadvertent IMC and loss of speed awareness are very likely to occur. The accident pilot was highly experienced and more than qualified to fly the accident aircraft.