According to the commercial pilot and flight instructor, the purpose of the flight was to fly the Cessna 150H from Joseph Y. Resnick Airport (N89) in Ellenville, New York, to Shelbyville Municipal Airport (KGEZ) in Indiana after the passenger purchased the aircraft with a pilot’s license.
The commercial pilot sat in the right seat and the passenger with a pilot’s license sat in the left seat. The passenger with a pilot’s license had a private pilot’s license but no medical certificate.
The passenger took off with the flaps set at 10° to “generate additional lift and get us off the ground,” he told investigators.
The aircraft took off with about 300 meters of the 1,177 meter runway remaining and climbed “well” until it was about 30 meters above ground level, at which point the aircraft could not climb any further.
As the mountains approached, the commercial pilot took control of the aircraft and searched for a place to land. The stall warning horn sounded and the nose was lowered to maintain airspeed.
As the plane approached two power lines, he raised his head to clear the first line. When the lines were clear, he shut down the engine and raised the flaps. The plane dropped about 30 feet and crashed onto the road. The plane came to a stop and the pilots abandoned the aircraft.
The airline pilot suffered minor injuries and the passenger was unharmed.
The wreckage came to rest on a wooded embankment by the side of the road. The aircraft suffered structural damage to both wings, the fuselage and the tail unit.
During the investigation, flight planning information was provided by the pilots.
They stated that the aircraft’s weight at takeoff was 1,595 pounds and the maximum allowable takeoff weight was 1,600 pounds.
They calculated a pressure altitude of 1,934 feet.
Textron reported that the takeoff run would be approximately 490 feet under reported conditions and the expected rate of climb would be approximately 640 feet per minute; however, climb performance data is not available for the 10° flap setting.
The Cessna 150H operator’s manual describes taking off with 10° flaps: “Normal and obstacle-clear takeoffs are conducted with flaps up. Using 10° reduces ground approach time by about 10%, but this benefit is lost when climbing to a 50-foot obstacle. Therefore, use of 10° flaps is reserved for minimum ground approach times or for taking off from soft or rough fields with no obstacles ahead.”
Possible cause: The decision of both pilots to perform the takeoff at almost maximum total weight with 10° flaps, contrary to the procedure in the user manual, resulted in the aircraft’s climb performance decreasing in higher terrain.
NTSB Identification: 105680
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This August 2022 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. It was published as an educational tool to help pilots learn from the mishaps of others.
