[Ernie Martin]

I made a call to the airport and have obtained additional information.

The man I spoke to and his wife were there and spoke and saw the pilot before taxiing. They heard engine run-up and witnessed the take-off and initial climb. Aside from a rocking of the wings and the perception that perhaps it was going a bit slow (emphasis on "perhaps", maybe inaccurate), all seemed well. Engine sound was OK. The pilot turned east on his crosswind turn and radioed an aircraft about to take-off that he was leaving the pattern to the north. No additional transmissions were heard, and the impact -- almost straight down followed by a fire that consumed most of the aircraft -- was 1/4 mile east of the runway. The person, who heard the impact but was too far to see it, believes he heard the engines increasing power just before impact.

Although the airport altitude is 7500 ft, it was a chilly day, so performance should have been OK. Also, the pilot was from Salidas (his destination), which has a similar altitude, so he was familiar with high-altitude take-off.

The aircraft had a full rebuild about a year earlier but had flown a number of times since then. It was at KALS for an annual inspection, which had been completed about two weeks earlier, and this was its maiden flight since the annual.

The pilot had a massive auto accident about two weeks earlier when he fell sleep and totaled his car. He and his wife were planning on buying a new car in the days ahead. While the pilot looked OK before take-off, the absence of any distress call led the witness and me to speculate about the possibility of a stroke, perhaps from a latent brain injury from the earlier crash.

There were no remains to perform an autopsy. Although the FAA has not determined cause, the impression left with the mechanic who performed the annual and others at the airport is that the FAA people view it as pilot error (Ernie's comment: possibly due to incapacitation?).

Ernie