- Date
- August 19, 2012, 17:50 local (21:50 UTC)
- Place
- Onondaga, MI
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N520SKKolb MK-3
- Defining event
- Landing-landing roll: Runway excursion
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 25, 2013
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration
- FAA report
- 20120819019219A
- Case key
- 84762
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The noncertificated pilot's inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in landing on a runway of inadequate length and subsequent runway excursion.
Findings · 4
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The noncertificated pilot reported taking off from his private airstrip and flying to a friend’s grass airstrip. Upon landing, he found that the destination airstrip was too short. The airplane overran the end of the runway and impacted a stump. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Factual narrative
On August 19, 2012, about 1750 eastern daylight time, an experimental amateur-built Kolb Aircraft Company Mark 3 airplane, N520SK, impacted a tree and terrain while landing on a private airstrip near Onondaga, Michigan. The noncertificated pilot, who was the sole occupant, reported no injuries. The airplane sustained substantial wing and fuselage damage. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual flight rules (VFR) conditions prevailed for the flight, which did not operated on a VFR flight plan. The flight originated from a private airstrip near Eaton Rapids, Michigan, about 1735. According to the pilot’s accident report, he flew to the destination airstrip where he found that the strip was too short for the speed of the landing. The airplane went off the end of the runway and impacted a stump. The pilot indicated that there were no malfunctions with the airplane during the accident flight. At 1756, the recorded wind at the Jackson County Airport-Reynolds Field, near Jackson, Michigan, was 250 degrees at 5 knots.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N520SK
- Reported as
- Kolb MK-3
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 01050
- Airframe hours
- 444
- Engine
- Rotax 582, 65 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Pilot
- Registered owner
- Pilot
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Condition · April 1, 2010
- Departed
- Eaton Rapids, MI
- Destination
- PVT · Onondaga, MI
- Airport
- PVT · Private
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 69
- Injuries
- None
- Seat
- Left
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 75 °F, dew point 46 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.90 inHg
- Observed at
- JXN, 12 nm away
Docket · 1
The files NTSB released with the investigation on March 7, 2013, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 966 KB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.