Beechcraft 35 N2PZ

Summary

On 17 April 2001 at about 22:27 local time, a Beechcraft 35 registered N2PZ was involved in an accident near Glenwood Sprgs, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

17 April 2001 at 22:27

Classification

Accident

Location

Glenwood Sprgs, Colorado, United States

Coordinates

39.5398, -107.3309

Aircraft

Beechcraft 35

Registration

N2PZ

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Glenwood Spring → Boise

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DEN01FA088

1 person died.

the pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control, and the subsequent inadvertent stall/mush to the ground. Contributing factors were the pilot's lack of experience in make/model airplane, the high density altitude weather condition, and the pilot's attempted departure with a tailwind.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was departing on runway 14, with a tailwind, at a mountain airport (elevation 5,916 feet; density altitude 8,016 feet) with near the aft limit CG. Witnesses said that the airplane rotated quickly and excessively. They said that the landing gear doors opened almost immediately even though the airplane's speed appeared slow and its pitch remained excessively high. Several of the witnesses observed the airplane wobbling side to side. A flight instructor, who was watching the departure, said that airplane never got higher than 100 feet above the ground. He said that he saw the airplane pitch up even more (the longitudinal trim was found 10 degrees nose down), and then it stalled into the ground. The pilot had purchased the airplane on March 30, 2001, and reported, on an insurance application for the airplane, that he had approximately 200 hours of total flight experience over 10 years, with 15 hours in retractable gear aircraft. The pilot had accumulated an estimated 20 hours of flight experience in the airplane by the time of the accident. Examination of the airplane and engine revealed no evidence of any pre-impact discrepancies.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.