During a cross-country flight, the Cessna 182’s engine sputtered twice. The pilot performed an uneventful precautionary landing, in a field near Littleton, N.C., about 20 miles away from his intended destination. He then secured ground transportation and obtained more fuel for the airplane. During the subsequent takeoff from the “L-shaped” field, the plane drifted right […]
Bird strike bends 182
The pilot was flying over a bayou canal near Paradis, La., when a large bird hit the leading edge of the Cessna 182’s right wing. He immediately felt a vibration in the control yoke, and had to apply left aileron and left rudder to keep the plane from rolling to the right. He assessed the […]
Cessna 195A ground loops
The pilot reported that during the landing roll with a constant crosswind, the Cessna 195A veered left of the runway centerline at the airport in Salinas, Calif. He applied right rudder control and braking action, which resulted in an over correction. The airplane entered a right ground loop which rotated it about 270°. The fuselage […]
Distracted student pilot lands gear up
The student pilot reported that following an uneventful flight in the Cessna 177RG, as he entered the airport traffic pattern in Richland, Wash., on the downwind leg, he was notified by another pilot that there was an airplane operating within the traffic pattern with no radio. The student pilot established visual contact with one airplane, […]
Flight into icing conditions fatal for five
The instrument-rated pilot was on a 234-nm instrument flight rules (IFR) cross-country flight over mountainous terrain in the Beech B36TC. During the flight, he notified a controller at the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) that the plane was picking up too much ice and requested to divert to an airport located about 96 miles […]
172 hits FBO
The Cessna 172 had just returned from a training flight near New Orleans and the engine was still warm. The pilot said she had difficulty starting the engine and opened the throttle “just a bit.” She said she set the parking brake and her feet were on the brakes. When the engine started, it went […]
Flight into icing conditions injures three
The non-instrument-rated private pilot obtained a computerized weather briefing about nine hours before he departed on a night cross-country flight in a Piper PA28-181. At that time, neither ice nor low visibility conditions were forecast along his intended flight route. He did not obtain any additional weather information before takeoff or while en route. Weather […]
Fuel exhaustion brings down C-150
The Cessna 150L pilot reported that, before departure, she checked the fuel gauges and estimated that the fuel tanks were just under 1/2 full and contained no less than 10 gallons of fuel. (The total fuel capacity was 26 gallons, of which 3.5 gallons were unusable.) She was unable to measure the fuel because she […]
Landing on lake goes awry
The pilot was landing a wheel/ski-equipped Cessna 185 on a frozen, wind-blown, ice and snow-covered lake near Nenana, Alaska. He had established a landing area earlier in the day, by laying down ski tracks with a friend’s ski-equipped airplane. Upon touchdown, the plane did not slow as expected, and it began to veer off the […]