Maule M-7-260C N63KP

Summary

On 8 June 2002 at about 18:45 local time, a Maule M-7-260C registered N63KP was involved in an accident near Fishers, Indiana, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

8 June 2002 at 18:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Fishers, Indiana, United States

Coordinates

39.9504, -86.0210

Aircraft

Maule M-7-260C

Registration

N63KP

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lebanon → Fishers

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI02LA157

Nobody was injured.

The pilot not performing a go-around prior to exceeding the proper touchdown point and the pilot not maintaining altitude/clearance from the trees. Factors to the accident were the pilot's inadequate preflight planning and the trees.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During an attempted aborted landing the airplane impacted trees and terrain. The pilot reported, "Touchdown took place at about 1/2 of the way down the 1000' long field with a short bounce that put me uncomfortably long. I executed a go around and was surprised by the very sluggish climb performance and the height of the trees at the end of the field. I felt like the full flaps were creating too much drag at the same time I realized that I was perilously close to the pine trees at about 50 feet high. I retracted the flaps to reduce drag at about the same time that the right wing tip caught the pine. The impact slowed the right wing and the aircraft spun to the right coming down in the field north of the trees." The pilot stated, "In retrospect I realize that I had too much fuel 50 [gallons] versus my usual 25 [gallons] for this field and that the temperature and high humidity increased my ground speed due to the higher density altitude and drastically reduced my climb performance where my previous landings here [were] in the winter at much cooler temperatures. The turbulence and gusts caused me to add too much airspeed for a successful short field landing taking into account the power line." A weather reporting station recorded the wind speed around the accident time as 6 knots with no gusts.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.