Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Poplar Grove Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Poplar Grove, Illinois 61065
Saturday, July 21, 2001 12:45 CDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The amateur-built experimental biplane was destroyed when it experienced an in-flight separation of the right upper wing and spiraled into the terrain. A witness reported that he saw, "the Kelly-D airplane coming out of a maneuver of some kind. He continued west at approx. 800-1000'. He pulled up, rolled to the left (inverted) and pulled out (1/2 loop). He repeated the same maneuver going east, and as he leveled out I saw what looked like a large piece of fabric and another object leave the airplane. The fabric fell slowly the other object a little faster. The airplane continued for a couple seconds and then rolled over and spiraled into the ground." The witness reported the maneuver was smooth and that it could not have pulled more that 3.5g's during the maneuver. He reported the failure occurred as the airplane was leveling off. He reported the engine was operating during the entire flight and there was no indication of an engine problem. One of the wooden propeller blades was found bent opposite the direction of rotation, broken at the hub, and was splintered. A propeller slash was found in the dirt at the point of propeller impact. The clevis ends of the flying and landing wires were examined. Six of the jam nuts were found loose. The examination of the left front upper spar revealed that the adhesive used on the plywood doubler did not cover the entire area being bonded to the spar. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory report stated, "There was also very little penetration of the adhesive into the spar." The report stated that the right upper front and rear spars exhibited compression and tension failure surfaces.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The right upper wing failed due to overload. A factor was the pilot performing aerobatic manuevers.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 7/21/2001 |
| Event Day of the Week | Saturday |
| Time of Event | 1245 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Daylight Time |
| Event City | Poplar Grove |
| Event State | ILLINOIS |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 61065 |
| Event Date Year | 2001 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | Poplar Grove |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | C77 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 856 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1254 Central Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 255 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | RFD |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 742 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 18 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | CDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 3100 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | -- |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 32 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 22 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 0 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.91 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 1902 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | 2 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 12278 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 21 2001 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1400 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 20 2002 10:08AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | FAA-DuPage FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N303SM |
| NTSB Number | CHI01FA232 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Smith |
| Aircraft Model | Kelly-D |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 38 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1600 |
| 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 | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 60 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Glenn Smith |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 1174 Concord Dr. |
| Aircraft Owner City | Elgin |
| Aircraft Owner State | IL |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 60120 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| 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? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| 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 | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | C77 |
| Departure City | Poplar Grove |
| Departure State | IL |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1230 |
| Departure Time Zone | CDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | -- |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Maneuvering |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Sep 3 2002 7:50AM |
| User who most recently changed record | SULP |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | -- |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |