- Date
- October 1, 1991, 12:05 local (19:05 UTC)
- Place
- Sonora, CA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N860CDCano Avid Flyer
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 23, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19911001044409A
- Case key
- 27464
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
Fuel starvation due to vapor lock.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The pilot stated in his written report that he refueled the aircraft prior to departure with about 19 gallons of aviation fuel. According to the pilot, he departed columbia and climbed to about 10,000 feet while he flew around the sierra Nevada mountains. At about 1200 hours, he turned and headed back to columbia. He reported that the engine began to surge and the rear cylinder EGT indicated a potential fuel starvation problem. The engine was not producing sufficient power to maintain flight and the pilot set up for a forced landing in a mountain meadow. He stated that the engine continued to surge, even after the throttle was reduced to idle, which caused the aircraft to over shoot his intended landing spot. The aircraft collided with trees at the FAR end of the meadow. The pilot said the aircraft is not equipped with an electric boost pump. He speculated that the engine power problem was due to either vapor lock or a malfunction of the engine driven pump.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N860CD
- Reported as
- Cano Avid Flyer
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 860
- Airframe hours
- 65
- Engine
- Rotax 582, 65 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Derego, Charles A.
- Registered owner
- Cano, David
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · November 1, 1990 · 65 hours before
- Departed
- 022 · Columbia, CA
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
- 45
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Flight engineer, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 48 in the last 90 days · 27 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 320° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 84 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.