Two friends of mine, both pilots, knew both of the pilots in this tragic fatality. Both of the pilots in this crash were very experienced and both were airline pilots. With all of their hours and experience, I wonder how much "mountain flying" experience they had? A witness on the ground saw the plane on base to final in a steep turn that quickly got steeper (over 60° bank) until the plane fell nose down.

Winds were reported gusting to 20 at the time and although not confirmed to date, the density altitude was 8.000 feet... the NTSB will find the rest.

http://machnoneflying.com/2010/01/rv8-crash-kills-2/

Wow, this is most sad, and freaky, as they were so experienced. sounds like a spiral dive to me. That `lil `ol thang doesn`t seem to have been able to have withstood the stress on the airframe - must - be, can`t see two old boys messing up big time together. Ah, I see, Experimental - maybe they were doing an ongoing air test on it - as one does. hmmm, one day a Test Flight will fail - which is why they send us up to do `em. you cannot do in a Boeing what you can in a Cessna. you cannot do in an experimental VLA like you can do in a Cessna. The, the body is not there! the fueselage has not the same strength.