She said: ‘It seemed to accelerate normally down the runway and climbed normally initially but within a very short space of time it became obvious we weren’t going anywhere.
‘It wouldn’t climb. It never got over about 50ft. It was just a choice of a gradual turn and put the thing down and then it went into a bush.’
It did a full flip and ended up the right way up. The aeroplane is just destroyed
Doesn't sound a very technical description to me - presumably this was intended for lay readers? This reminds me of the lady who flew an R44 around the world in the '90's accompanied by an experienced chaperone although I understand she did achieve the same feat solo later on - I don't think there was any suggestion she was solo the first time though.
Winslow can be a bit swirly at times and performance considerations must be taken into account - surely an experienced vintage operator would lean off the mixture under the circumstances regardless of where the aircraft is based -they've flown this all over the world, right? I know of a number of density altitude related accidents at fairly nearby Sedona but the risk is exacerbated there as the airfield sits on a monolith with a significant drop on all sides - indeed a friend of mine (former FJ's, airline and much single-engine piston experience) died in a horrific accident in the area a few years ago although the reason was undetermined, the suggestion was density altitude related.