The private pilot lost control of the Piper PA32 during takeoff at the airport in Hereford, Texas.
The plane hit the ground near the departure end of the runway and was destroyed. All four people aboard the plane sustained serious injuries.
The pilot reported she had no memory of her preflight activity or takeoff.
A witness observed the airplane in a nose-high, tail-low attitude during the takeoff, but lost sight of the airplane behind hangars. He noted that the engine sounded like it was at full power.
Data recovered from an onboard engine monitor did not reveal any indication of a loss of engine power during takeoff.
The airplane was loaded within the gross weight and center-of-gravity limits.
Performance data indicated that the available runway length was sufficient for takeoff.
It is likely that the pilot overrotated during takeoff and the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall, which resulted in the airplane departing controlled flight and hitting the ground.
Probable cause: The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack during takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
NTSB Identification: CEN18LA378
This September 2018 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Looking at the info in the docket, the weight and balance chart showed that with the 2 very heavy folks in the middle and rear seat, the CG was near the middle of the range.
Per her log book, most of her other flights were with one front seat passenger of solo, which put the CG at the forward limit.
I suspect that the pilot did not set the elevator trim for the rearward CG and was surprised at the high nose-up pitch, and had no time to retrim or give the ‘big push’ to get the nose down….sad.
This is one that makes no sense. A pilot with a reasonable amount of experience taking off in relatively benign conditions from a runway that was far longer than required. It sounds more like a bad attempt to make a short field takeoff with an obstacle than a normal takeoff under those circumstances. It is a shame the pilot had no memory of the takeoff but as I recall that is not uncommon after an accident that resulted in serious injury (no shoulder harness!!!).
I’ve read the reports and they did not contain the setting of the Johnson bar or flaps after the crash. The airport is listed as being 3,788′ MSL The NTSB quoted the manual for this plane for flaps that should have been used, but they did not state if any were used.
Having flown a Cherokee-6 300, I know that many pilots that have transitioned to this aircraft are not taught to use at least 10 degrees of flaps for departure on a Hi-Density Altitude day. In fact, they should be used for almost all departures not requiring 25 degrees because the performance section of the manual shows that 10 degrees of flaps are needed for the best climb all the way up to 11,000 DA.
Thankfully, I went back and read the manual carefully after being questioned by DFW approach when having an anemic climb while flying west, headed toward the east control tower (VFR vectoring over DFW).
I think this pilot got the plane to rotate and get a little climb in ground effect but then could not get a climb of any better than 100 FPM and eventually “sank” into the terrain somewhere after the road to the left of the runway as the terrain started to rise.