N79210Cessna 172K · 1969

The pilot stated that he was on a local flight which was uneventful. He said that when he arrived at his destination airport, he entered the airport pattern for runway 1. Additionally, he recalled that his traffic pattern altitude (TPA) was 200 feet higher than the required 1,500 feet. He said that he did a slip to lose the excess altitude and establish an 80 mph descent on downwind with 10 degrees of flaps. He also said that he added another 10 degrees of flaps, reduced the throttle to 1,300 rpm, and turned base. The airplane's speed remained at 80 mph, instead of decreasing to the 75 mph speed he was trying to attain. Although his speed was still higher than the speed he wanted, he turned to final and overshot the runway "numbers". He continued by saying that "the plane was traveling too fast to make the turn at the end of the runway." Consequently, he "ran off the end of the runway into an embankment." The pilot did not report any mechanical or flight control anomalies prior to the accident.