Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Madera, California 93637
Wednesday, June 21, 2000 14:00 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
This was a cross-country flight from Oregon to California with two en route stops planned to refuel. The flight departed at 0730, with refueling stops along the way. A departure time of 1120 was made from the second airport. The pilot indicated that the airplane had a fuel capacity of 20 gallons and a burn rate of 8 gallons per hour, approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours of flight, and was not equipped with flaps. After arrival at the destination airport, at 1320, he made three attempts to land. Due to winds and a high temperature he was unable to land. On all three attempts, he landed approximately halfway down the runway, and did not feel there was enough room to safely come to a stop. He departed the airport at 1345 to attempt a landing at an airport approximately 20 nmi from his current position; passing by an airport 5 miles from his current location because he did not have a transponder onboard the airplane and did not want to enter Class C airspace without it. Approximately 6 miles from the airport the engine quit, and the pilot started looking for a place to make an emergency landing.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's inadequate short field landing procedure and his delayed decision to proceed to an alternate destination, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a subsequent hard landing during the emergency descent.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 6/21/2000 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1400 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | MADERA |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 93637 |
| Event Date Year | 2000 |
| Event Date Month | 6 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 2 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 225 |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1353 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 225 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | MAE |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 253 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 2 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 100 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 57 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 300 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 10 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 10625 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jun 21 2000 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1505 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 2 2001 8:45AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N4119Q |
| NTSB Number | LAX00LA238 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Ward |
| Aircraft Model | SIDEWINDER |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | SIDEWINDER |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 34 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1480 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | Yes |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Apr 1 2000 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 39 |
| Airframe Hours | 223 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | GREGORY S. GEROT |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | |
| Aircraft Owner City | EUGENE |
| Aircraft Owner State | OR |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 97401 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | RBL |
| Departure City | RED BLUFF |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 1120 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | FCH |
| Destination City | FRESNO |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Descent |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 12 2001 4:01AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |