Pilot Doing Stunts Before Fatal Crash

A 62-year-old pilot appeared to be performing aerobatic stunts at too low an altitude when his homemade plane crashed and killed him, federal investigators were told Tuesday by witnesses to the Poway accident.

William Herman Parrigin of Lakeside was flying the the single-engine RV-4 when the crashed occurred about 5:30 p.m. Monday at the east end of south Poway Parkway.

Witnesses who were watching Parrigin’s stunts said he seemed to be only about 600 feet above the ground.

Federal flight laws for aerobatic flying say that the plane should be at least 1,500 feet above ground, said Jeff Reynolds, an investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“I saw him about 30 seconds to a minute before he went down,” said Scott Jennette, an aerospace analyst who was standing outside the General Dynamics plant about half a mile from the crash site. “I saw him do about two barrel rolls and then he just took a nose dive straight to the ground.”

Investigators still must examine the aircraft further and conduct additional interviews with witnesses before making an official determination on the cause of the crash.

After striking the ground the plane apparently skidded across a dirt field and went over an embankment, where it broke apart, said Mike Kolesar, a production control supervisor at General Dynamics who drove out to the site after he witnessed the crash.

Parrigin took off from Gillespie Field in El Cajon just after 5 p.m. He never radioed that he was in trouble or needed help, said an air traffic controller in the airport tower.

Parrigin began buying sections of the airplane piecemeal in 1984 and assemblying it, said Dick Smith, general manager of Van’s Aircraft Inc. near Portland, Ore., the company that sold Parrigin the parts.

The Federal Aviation Administration certified the plane as airworthy in 1986, Reynolds said.

An RV-4 is a small two-person plane made of sheet metal that reaches a top speed of 205 m.p.h. It has a wing span of 23 feet and a length of just more than 20 feet, Smith said.

Authorities are uncertain where Parrigin was headed when he took off from Gillespie because he was not required to submit a flight plan, Reynolds said.

But witnesses said the area where Parrigin crashed is known as a haven for pilots to do stunt flying as well as chase each other around in the air in mock “dog fights.”