RV-7 down, 1 dead

[A2022]

East bound and down.... reminds me of the RV-9A that went down last year on the way to Oshkosh trying to punch through the weather at 10K ft plus. they found the rudder, then the horizontal stabilizer, then the wings, etc. in that order. this will probably be similar. when these things happen over and over again, you can begin to say "hey, don't do that". RV's are delicate, fun to fly, machines. If you want to take on thunderstorms, they are not the correct aircraft.

from that altitude, the pilot would have had a long time to think about it. all I can offer is a song.

Ben Böhmer - Slow Wave feat. Gordi (Official Visualiser)
https://youtu.be/F1JkJSFdLi4

N977RV

[A2022]

from the preliminary report, it doesn't appear that this aircraft broke up in-flight. he simply augured in. perhaps spatial disorientation caught in a graveyard spiral, but he was IFR rated. surprised he didn't make a 180 and ride it out of there. he did mention that he was picking up ice, I wonder if the aircraft developed an ice jam between the elevator horn and the fairing. some make that gap so tight you can't get a credit card thickness in there and a small amount of ice could easily jam the elevator.

in my opinion, it is stupid to make a tight elevator horn to fairing clearance. there is negligible performance increase with a large increase in risk for an elevator ice jam. if the gap is too tight, fix it.

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/ ... 192292/pdf

On June 2, 2023, at about 0907 Central Daylight Time, a Vans RV-7, N977RV, was destroyed
when it was involved in an accident in Gibbon, Nebraska. The pilot was fatally injured. The
airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.
Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) data revealed that the airplane
departed Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), Denver, Colorado, at 0610 and
proceeded direct toward Red Oak Municipal Airport (RDK), Red Oak, Iowa. The pilot filed an
instrument flight plan. About two hours after departure from BJC, at an altitude of 15,000 ft
mean sea level (msl), the pilot requested a lower altitude from air traffic control (ATC) due to
encountering ice. The controller gave the pilot a block altitude between 11,000 and 15,000 ft
msl, and the pilot began a descent. Shortly after the pilot began his descent, the controller
advised him that there was “extreme precipitation” in the area. About one minute later, the
controller told the pilot that he was permitted a lower altitude if he wished to continue to
descend. There was no further response from the pilot.
Dashboard camera footage from a car traveling east bound on Interstate 80, captured the
airplane descending in a nose-down attitude. The airplane impacted an open grassy area
surrounded by trees about 260 ft south of the interstate. The debris field was generally aligned
on a 257° heading, and the main wreckage came to rest upright. Ground scaring at the
accident site confirmed that the airplane was in a nose-down attitude when it struck the
ground. The initial impact point consisted of a two-foot deep crater with the propeller
embedded in it. The propeller was still intact at the hub; however, it was separated from the
engine flange.
The dashboard board camera footage also revealed that it was raining heavily at the time of
the accident with a low overcast cloud layer. Weather radar images at the time of the accident
depicted heavy precipitation and thunderstorms in the vicinity.