Bellanca 7GCBC N68567

Summary

On 22 May 2003 at about 02:00 local time, a Bellanca 7GCBC registered N68567, operated by T. Brill, was involved in an accident near Reno, Nevada, 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

22 May 2003 at 02:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Reno, Nevada, United States

Nearest airport

Reno/Stead (4SD)

Coordinates

39.6678, -119.8825

Aircraft

Bellanca 7GCBC

Registration

N68567

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

T. Brill

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Reno → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX03LA159

Nobody was injured.

a loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The certified flight instructor made a hard landing following a loss of engine power during takeoff initial climb. After adding 10 gallons of fuel to the airplane, the flight instructor and the student taxied to the hold short line and completed an uneventful run-up for runway 26. The airplane rotated at 60 miles per hour (mph) indicated airspeed (IAS), and the instructor told the student to pitch for the best rate of climb speed. Approximately 500 feet above ground level, as the student was turning crosswind, the engine "coughed." The flight instructor told the student to apply full throttle and mixture; the tachometer was then reading 2,100 rpm. The engine "coughed" again and the rpm decreased to 1,500 rpm. Then, the engine completely lost power. The flight instructor decided to try to return to the runway. The airplane was in a right turn at 500 feet agl. As the airplane approached runway 8, the airspeed was 61 mph IAS. The airplane touched down on the runway, still in the turn. The left main landing gear sheared off and the airplane slid to a stop in the gravel on the south side of the runway. Post accident examination of the engine revealed that the mixture control arm could not reach the "FULL RICH" position. This anomaly could not be explained by impact damage. Considering the elevation of the airport and the likely 7,600-foot density altitude, investigators were uncertain about the relationship between the mixture control travel limit and the loss of engine power. No other discrepancies were noted with the engine.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.