- Date
- August 30, 2020, 17:30 local (22:30 UTC)
- Place
- Hartford, WI
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Taxi
- Aircraft
- N88204Piper J3
- Defining event
- Taxi: Ground collision
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA
- FAA report
- 20200830018939A
- Case key
- 102358
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 pilot’s loss of situation awareness which resulted in landing in a grass area and the subsequent collision with a runway marker.
Findings · 2
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 pilot planned a personal flight to a nearby airport that had recently added new runways. Before the flight, his flight instructor sent him an airport diagram with the new grass runway marked, which was parallel to an asphalt runway. After the pilot reviewed the diagram, he thought he knew where to expect the new grass runway. While in the traffic pattern at the destination airport, the pilot noticed a large open grass space below him, so he landed the airplane. The pilot landed to the east but thought he had landed to the west. The area that he landed on was not the grass runway; while completing a fast taxi, the airplane collided with a runway marker for the north-south runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing spar.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N88204
- Reported as
- Piper J3
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15821
- Built
- 1946
- Airframe hours
- 3,880
- Engine
- Continental C90-12F, 90 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 15, 2020 · 15 hours before
- Departed
- ETB · Westbend, WI
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- HXF · Hartford Municipal Airport, runway 09, 2,000 × 200 ft, grass/turf
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
- 61
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Sport Pilot
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Sport pilot
- Last flight review
- July 14, 2020
- Seat
- Rear
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 63.2 total · 45.2 in this make and model · 10.9 as pilot in command · 16.9 in the last 90 days · 5 in the last 30 days · 0.5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Wind
- 100° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 64 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.89 inHg
- Observed at
- KETB
Docket · 3
The files NTSB released with the investigation on July 2, 2021, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 4.8 MB 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.