Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Mcgaheysville, Virginia 22840
Tuesady, August 14, 2001 15:45 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The flight instructor and student pilot were returning from a cross country flight, when a witness on the ground heard the airplane's engine "just cut-out". The witness looked up and saw the airplane "flying as it should." He said the airplane then "turned into a nose-dive" and started to spin toward the ground. As the airplane descended, the witness said it appeared as if the pilot was fighting the airplane. He also heard the engine trying to be re-started. The witness said the airplane "stayed in a consistent spiral" with a "really wide axis" until it disappeared into the trees. Additionally, he said the airplane took a long time to descend to the ground, and that the pilot had plenty of time to recover. The last nine seconds of recorded radar data indicated that the airplane had descended from 5,000 feet to 4,300 feet. The distance between the last radar return and the location of the accident site was approximately 765 feet. Three of the flight instructor's students reported that the flight instructor had asked them if they wanted to learn spins during their flight lessons. According to two students, the flight instructor would enter the spin from a power on stall, and recover after two to three rotations. However, on one occasion, a student said the flight instructor, "did a whole lot of rotations...way more than three. I estimated that we did about 10 rotations, but I am not exactly sure...The spiral was tight...The more we let it spin, the tighter the rotations. However, he had no problem recovering the airplane." The flight instructor had accrued a total of about 1,485.7 flight hours, of which 234.4 hours were in make and model, and 1,051.6 total hours were as flight instructor. Review of Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) 61.107- Flight Proficiency, an applicant for a private pilot certificate with a rating for airplane single-engine land is not required to receive and log spin training from an authorized instructor. Examination of the airplane and engine revealed that there were no mechanical deficiencies.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The flight instructor's failure to recover from a spin for undetermined reasons.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 8/14/2001 |
| Event Day of the Week | Tuesday |
| Time of Event | 1545 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | MCGAHEYSVILLE |
| Event State | VIRGINIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 22840 |
| Event Date Year | 2001 |
| Event Date Month | 8 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 382329N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0435809W |
| 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 | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1545 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 225 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | SHD |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 1201 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 10 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| 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) | 29 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 21 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 40 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 8 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.97 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 3366 |
| 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) | 12144 |
| NTSB Notification Source | Eastern Region Comm Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | Aug 14 2001 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1645 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Aug 26 2002 11:11AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | WASHINGTON FAA/FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N63351 |
| NTSB Number | IAD01FA097 |
| 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 | 150 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 15077256 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1600 |
| 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 | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jun 22 2001 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 92.2 |
| Airframe Hours | 5446.1 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | SHENANDOAH FLIGHT SERVICES |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | WEYERS CAVE |
| Aircraft Owner State | VA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 24486 |
| 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) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | MRB |
| Departure City | MARTINSBURG |
| Departure State | WV |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1455 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | SHD |
| Destination City | SHENANDOAH |
| Destination State | VA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Maneuvering |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 20 2002 11:15AM |
| User who most recently changed record | PEAR |
| 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 | -- |