A CFI and private pilot were attempting to do a two-leg cross-country flight in a Cirrus SR20. Before takeoff from Danbury, Conn., the CFI used a flashlight to look in the fuel tanks and determined they contained 25 gallons of usable fuel, and that the flight would require 23.3 gallons of fuel. He then entered 22 gallons […]
NTSB Accidents
Girlfriend walks into propeller
The pilot reported that he and a passenger were preparing to take off in a Quicksilver Sport from an airport in Camarillo, Calif. The airplane has a rear-mounted engine and the engine was running when the passenger’s girlfriend approached the airplane from behind to check an airframe-mounted camera she had installed to document the flight. Several […]
Airplane caught in power lines
A witness on the ground in Boulder, Utah, said the Cessna 140 was flying at a low altitude over an area that had power lines about 100 feet above ground level. The plane hit the lines and crashed, killing the pilot and passenger. The post-accident examination did not find any mechanical issues with the airplane. Local residents reported seeing […]
Hard landing leads to gear failure
During an instructional flight in a Cessna 172RG over Redmond, Ore., the CFI and student were unable to fully extend or retract the left main landing gear. They made several attempts to fix the problem, but were unsuccessful, so they made a gear-up landing. The post-accident examination revealed that the pivot assembly for the left main landing […]
Sebring crash victims identified
Sheriff’s deputies have identified the two people who died in the crash of an Aero Adventure amphibious LSA near the main runway at Sebring Regional Airport in Florida, site of the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo. According to a report at AVweb, pilot Dennis Day, of Groveland, Florida, and Jason Spinks, 44, of Orlando, were killed […]
Piper gets away during hand-propping
The pilot was attempting to hand-prop a Piper Comanche by himself in Phillipsburgh, Ohio. He did not set the parking brake before he began the procedure. When the engine started, the airplane began to move forward. The pilot tried to reach into the cockpit to grab the hand brake, but in the process pushed the throttle in, which made […]
Night approach goes bad
The pilot, flying a Grumman Tiger, was attempting to land at the airport in Ankeny, Iowa, in night VFR conditions. He listened to the AWOS and learned the wind was from 220° at 10 knots, gusting to 26 knots. The first attempt to land resulted in a bounce, so he did a go-around. He came around […]
Oil starvation, miscommunication prove fatal
The lineman who serviced the Beech Bonanza prior to the flight noticed visible oil leaks on the airplane during refueling. He pointed them out to the pilot. The pilot, accompanied by two passengers, was flying in VFR conditions at an altitude of about 7,500 feet over Palm Coast, Fla., when he reported engine vibrations and an “oil pressure problem” to air traffic control […]
Super Cub breaks through the ice
The pilot took off in his Super Cub from a private airstrip in a wheel/ski-equipped airplane on a local area flight. He attempted to land on an ice-covered, frozen lake, and, due to the bare ice conditions, he elected to land in a wheel configuration instead of ski configuration. During the landing roll, as the airplane […]