RL> CM> At this relatively low altitude, he didn't have time to sort it all
RL> CM> out, and opted to land in a controlled crash. He ended up upside
RL> CM> down in an apple tree. Since I wasn't there, I can't criticize
RL> CM> his choice of a landing site. 
RL>I would never criticize anyone's forced landing, but I would question why
RL>he  was flying low, particularly with his family on board.
    Sorry, didn't mean to mislead anyone; I have no idea
of what altitude he was flying - and, being used to flying
most of my missions at altitudes of 10,000 to 40,000
feet, I tend to feel that anything below 10,000 is a
relatively low altitude. 
    He was flying East, VFR, and, if I remember correctly,
this means he was flying at 7500, 5500, 3500, or 1500.
    For me, 5500 or below would be very low.  Yet,
I recall doing spins in Primary Flight training at an
altitude of below 5000. This was the PA-18 Super Piper.
The T-6s had 5000 to 10,000 assigned to them; us
lower classmen, in the Pipers, had 5000 or below, for
the purpose of aircraft separation in the acrobatic
areas, I suppose. I shudder to think, now, of doing
spins in ANY aircraft at 5000 or below.
..
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 * SLMR 2.1a * - Ignorance is curable; stupidity is forever.
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
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