Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Fort Collins Downtown Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 16:15 MDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The student pilot had just finished practicing several soft field take offs and landings with an instructor and was on his first solo flight of the day. After taxing to the end of runway, he pulled the yoke back all the way, and added full power. Following rotation, the airplane came straight up in a 45-degree incline. At approximately 20 feet in the air, the airplane drifted off to the right of the runway, struck the ground with its left wing tip, bounced up and then it struck the ground a second time. The ground impact collapsed and sheered off the nose landing gear, buckled the firewall, and bent the outboard 4 feet of the right wing spar.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the student pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control and subsequent inadvertent stall/mush into terrain during a soft field take off. Contributing factors include the pilot's lack of experience and the high density altitude conditions.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 7/31/2002 |
| Event Day of the Week | Wednesday |
| Time of Event | 1615 |
| Event Time Zone | Mountain Daylight Time |
| Event City | Fort Collins |
| Event State | COLORADO |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 80524 |
| Event Date Year | 2002 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | Fort Collins Downtown |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | 3V5 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 4939 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1615 Hawaii Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 175 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | KFNL |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 5016 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 8 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | HST |
| 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) | 37 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 1 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 150 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.95 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 8777 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 1 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 12519 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA Comm Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 31 2002 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1837 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 6 2002 3:26PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Denver FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N5088K |
| NTSB Number | DEN02LA086 |
| 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 | 172N |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 17273959 |
| 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 | AAIP |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jul 18 2002 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 27.5 |
| Airframe Hours | 8547.1 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | JIMANDI LLC. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 516 N Link LN Unit 2 |
| Aircraft Owner City | Fort Collins |
| Aircraft Owner State | CO |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 80526 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | The Pilot Center |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | 200 Racquette Dr. |
| Operator City | Fort Collins |
| Operator State | CO |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 80524 |
| 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 | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | 3V5 |
| Departure City | FT Collins |
| Departure State | CO |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1605 |
| Departure Time Zone | MDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | 3V5 |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 29 2002 10:51AM |
| User who most recently changed record | MCBM |
| Since inspection or accident | Last Inspection |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 11 |
| Runway Length | 5300 |
| Runway Width | 48 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |