Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 16; Flight Crew Total 320; Flight Crew Type 271
Workload; Confusion; Distraction; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT; Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Weather; Procedure
I was distracted in hazy conditions; having been instructed to follow the aircraft in front of me on downwind.  There had been multiple aircraft in the pattern; so I intended to keep a tight approach; but then I extended my pattern to follow the airplane in front of me. I began my descent into the airport on downwind.  As I turned base; I looked out the side window and I realized that I had descended too much and was passing over dense housing below at around 200 feet AGL (could have even been less).  It was very close to the ground and I was just turning base.  I was not aware that I was so close to the ground. I should have been about 700 feet AGL at that point. I added power and climbed back onto the appropriate altitude for the base leg; and completed the landing normally.The primary cause of this incident was my fixation on contradictory plans: to follow the airplane in front of me; but also to fly a tight pattern.  This fixation led to a loss of total situational awareness; including altitude above ground and terrain obstructions. Contributing factor was the haze; which made it more difficult to track the airplane to follow and my relation to the runway; as well as my perception of the airport being busy; which made me want to 'get down and out of the way' for other airplanes.Corrective actions are to maintain an appropriate scan during all phases of flight; and in high workload visual landings; or when following other traffic; not to begin a descent from traffic pattern altitude until the runway is in sight (turning base) rather than descending on downwind.
A pilot in the busy; hazy RNT VFR traffic pattern became distracted while concentrating on following traffic and descended to about 200 feet AGL turning base.