Individually Owned: 151,845
Corporate Owned: 143,699
Furnace Creek Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Death Valley, California 92328
Sunday, April 30, 2006 13:05 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The airplane lost engine power during the takeoff initial climb, and nosed over during the ensuing forced landing. The accident pilot radioed that he was having fuel problems and attempted to land just south of the airport. The airplane touched down in soft sand and nosed over. The recovery crew that retrieved the wreckage reported that both fuel tanks contained a substantial amount of fuel. An inspection of the airplane was performed. Trace amounts of fuel were found in the fuel system between the electric fuel pump and the fuel distributor. No fuel was found in the fuel distributor. The electric fuel pump was inoperative when tested. An operative electrical fuel pump and fuel source was connected to the airplane and the engine was started with no difficulties, but because of the damaged propeller, the engine was not run at full power. A magneto check was performed and found to be within the normal range. The right wing fuel tank had an inverted fuel pick-up and the left wing fuel tank had a standard pick-up. Both pick-ups were clean with no debris and free of blockage. The airplane was equipped with an Airflow Performance electric fuel pump, in addition to the engine driven fuel pump. According to the manufacturer of the electric fuel pump, an optional fuel purge system kit that would allow the pilot to purge hot fuel from the fuel lines with cooler fuel to help prevent vapor lock was available. The accident airplane was not equipped with the fuel purge system. The accident airplane's fuel system was installed so if the electric fuel pump became inoperative and the pump was not blocked, the engine driven fuel pump would be able to draw fuel out of the fuel tanks. A representative of the fuel pump manufacturer stated that the fuel pump could run dry for about 1 to 2 minutes before it would fail due to lack of lubrication.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
a fuel starvation induced loss of engine power due to a likely vapor lock condition in the fuel lines.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 4/30/2006 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 1305 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Death Valley |
| Event State | CALIFORNIA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 92328 |
| Event Date Year | 2006 |
| Event Date Month | 4 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 362704N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1165219W |
| Event Location Airport | Furnace Creek Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | L06 |
| 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 | -210 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1253 Pacific Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 90 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | DRA |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 3314 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 42 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | PDT |
| 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) | 30 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 1 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 3 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.92 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| 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 | 1 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 22385 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Apr 30 2006 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Nov 29 2007 8:02AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | FAA-LAS-FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N655VT |
| NTSB Number | LAX06LA153 |
| 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 | Ronald R Russell |
| Aircraft Model | RV-6 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 60536 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1850 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| 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 | Conditional |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jan 1 2006 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 30 |
| Airframe Hours | 124 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Ronald R Russell |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Independence |
| Aircraft Owner State | OR |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 97351 |
| 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 | L06 |
| Departure City | DEATH VALLEY NA |
| Departure State | CA |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1305 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | BLH |
| Destination City | BLYTHE |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff - initial climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 3 2007 6:14PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 15 |
| Runway Length | 3065 |
| Runway Width | 70 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |