Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Placerville Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Placerville, California 95667
Tuesady, July 24, 2001 22:46 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
Upon reaching the destination airport on a dark, nighttime cross-country flight, the pilot's approach was too high and fast, so he performed a go-around. On his second approach, the pilot was also too high, but the airplane touched down on the 4,200-foot-long runway. Concerned about being able to stop before reaching the runway's departure end, the pilot added full engine power and tried to go around. The engine power increased normally. During the initial climb out, the pilot experienced difficulty controlling the airplane. Contrary to Cessna's published recommended balked landing procedure, the pilot failed to retract the wing flaps from their 40-degrees setting. The airspeed was slow, the airplane stalled, and it impacted trees and terrain. About 1.5 months earlier, the pilot was issued a private pilot certificate. The accident occurred during the pilot's first, solo, night cross-country flight, and his total pilot-in-command night experience was 1.5 hours.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
Inadequate airspeed during climb out following an aborted landing that was precipitated by the pilot's misjudged speed/distance on final approach. Also, contributing to the accident was the pilot's inexperience in the type of operation, his failure to properly configure the airplane's flaps for the go-around, and the dark nighttime condition.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 7/24/2001 |
| Event Day of the Week | Tuesday |
| Time of Event | 2246 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Placerville |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 95667 |
| Event Date Year | 2001 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 384327N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1204512W |
| Event Location Airport | Placerville |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | PVF |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 1 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 2583 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 2252 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 345 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | BLU |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 5284 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 33 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Night/Dark |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 23 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 6 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Variable |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 3 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.08 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Minor |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 1 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 12686 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 24 2001 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 2310 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 25 2003 9:38AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WP-FSDO Sacramento, CA |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N8962V |
| NTSB Number | LAX01LA259 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | 172M |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 17264318 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 2300 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | May 23 2001 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 11096 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Hans Ulrich Muller; c/o Sun Air Aviation |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 50 Durley Ave. |
| Aircraft Owner City | Camarillo |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 93010 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | Sun Air Aviation, LLC. |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| 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) | Business |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | CMA |
| Departure City | Camarillo |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1945 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | PVF |
| Destination City | Placerville |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing - aborted |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Nov 18 2002 2:22PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 23 |
| Runway Length | 4200 |
| Runway Width | 75 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |