The purpose of the flight was to ferry the Air Tractor AT-401, which the pilot had never flown.
During the takeoff roll on the narrow (10-foot wide) runway at the airport in Jamestown, North Dakota, he advanced the throttle slowly, which resulted in the airplane’s slow acceleration. As the end of the runway approached, he selected full throttle and the airplane lifted off the ground at a slow airspeed.
As the airplane climbed out of ground effect, the pilot did not increase airspeed adequately due, in part, to his concern of power lines off the end of the runway.
The airplane subsequently entered an aerodynamic stall and hit terrain, which substantially damaged the right wing.
The pilot likely did not maintain proper airspeed during initial climb, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall. The pilot attributed his lack of familiarity with the airplane and the narrow runway as factors to the accident.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain proper airspeed after liftoff, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall.
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This August 2023 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.
I purchased an RV 9-A. I had never flown a low wing aircraft before. I had never flown an aircraft with a stick, I had never flown an aircraft with 160 HP, I had never flown an aircraft with a CS prop, I had never flown an aircraft fuel injection, I had never flown an aircraft with a glass panel before. I only have 500 hours and all of that is in a Cessna 150. I DID however get duel instruction with an instructor for a couple of hours. After the pre-buy and the lessons, I then flew it home for a 3 hours flight at NIGHT where I landed safely on the 8000′ runway.
Ignorance + stupidity = *%##@ +$$$
Stupid is as stupid does. Would be like the average car driver jumping behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer and expecting to drive it cross-country. They all have pedals and a steering wheel, right? I’m betting the insurance companies will make full training a requirement before paying for a damaged airplane. They’re going broke with this nonsense.
/J
First, I have driven a semi and other commercial vehicles. This would be more akin to the average driver getting into something like a drag racer.
This guy (commercial pilot, not his first crop duster) in my opinion was being overly cautious. And I’m not sure if a type rating is required for this particular airplane. Note that this is a tail wheel plane.
So you have to have tail wheel endorsement and Hi-Perf endorsement and a type rating(?). And this Air Tractor AT-401 has in excess of 500 SHP (Shaft HP) depending on engine, maybe 600 SHP.
I’ve only flown tricyle gear aircraft. I have ZERO tail wheel time.
I’ve only flown with IO540s, ~ 300 HP. The first time you run that throttle up you might want to get rolling first and center of the runway before you go full throttle, because you may not know how much rudder you will need. This gets more important the more narrow the runway.
Here he is on a narrow runway, tail wheel with a bit of a breeze.
I think he was too cautious. From what I know, he needed to get power in until that tail lifted and then add power, maintaining control unitl he was ready to climb. But he took too long to get to full power.
If it had been me, I would have done as he did, except once I had a feel for it, I would have chopped power, taxied back and started over. Remember, short runway. If you got much beyond the halfway point, stopping that plane would have been interesting.
Need to walk a bit in someone’s shoes.
All to common of an accident. Although this is a single place aircraft ,the pilot could have gotten training in a high performance turbo prop aircraft and been more prepared….
Sad and it is a good thing the pilot was not hurt…..