20250701011769A

Pilot stated he had already flown two loads that morning with everything operating as it should. On this his third load he approached the field as normal and made one pass, when he approached the end of the field he pulled up out of the field and noticed the plane not climbing normal. He looked at the oil pressure, temperatures and manifold pressure and all were ok, but still not a normal turn characteristic couldn’t climb higher. He made his turn wider so he wouldn’t lose airspeed. The plane was slowly sinking so he pointed the nose at the field. He looked for a spot to dump his load but there was no good location. He was approaching hwy 1, and just barely cleared the power lines. He braced for impact, that is when he hit the sugarcane, the plane did a small bounce and hit the ground again. The tail rolled over the front and stopped upside down. Pilot stated he took off with 60 gallons of fuel, and 160 gallons in the hopper, flew for about 25 minutes before the accident. Pilot stated the engine sounded fine.