Originally Posted by
43Inches
No it doesn't but some of the statements made earlier were asserting like it was a known fact that the aircraft was turning or starting to turn base at the time. Hence my comment that there is no evidence yet that a base turn was in process or about to be commenced at the time. The location is just in the vicinity of where we would expect the base turn to occur. I also see the (ground) speed was gradually decreasing for most of the downwind leg, there does not appear to be any sudden decrease to indicate they were about to do anything.
I know we shouldn't speculate, but isn't that what this form is for?
Having said that I tend to agree with what Bentleg posted above. Depending entirely upon what he was flying in his time at RAAus and given that many LSA's have low-speed stall characteristics, it's quite possible he simply got too slow down-wind.. and then deploying flaps whilst looking for the runway under the wing was all it took to spin in. Base turn can a busy time for low-time pilots in new-to-them aircraft. Of course asymmetric flap (and subsequent "WTF is happening??") could do it too and is one reason many instructors teach never to lower flaps in a turn.