Aeronca 65C N21301

Summary

On 23 March 2013 at about 17:30 local time, a Aeronca 65C registered N21301, operated by David P. Floura, was involved in an accident near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, 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

23 March 2013 at 17:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Grand Rapids, Minnesota, United States

Coordinates

47.1033, -93.4531

Aircraft

Aeronca 65C

Registration

N21301

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

David P. Floura

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Grand Rapids → Grand Rapids

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN13CA224

Nobody was injured.

The student pilot’s failure to adequately lock the primer before takeoff and the flight instructor's failure to verify that the primer was adequately locked.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor hand-propped the engine and the student pilot set the engine controls before the flight. The flight consisted mainly of practicing ground reference maneuvers and slips. The flight instructor reported that they were about 700 feet above the ground when the engine lost all power and the propeller stopped spinning. The flight instructor performed the emergency checklist by memory and located a frozen lake on which to land. The airplane nosed over during the landing roll, which resulted in substantial damage to the wing spars. Photos taken at the accident site showed that the fuel primer control was unlocked and the primer control was at an intermediate position. The flight instructor reported that the student stated he locked the primer control, but only turned the control about 1/8 inch to lock it. The flight instructor stated that the primer control was in its locked position when he checked it before the flight. It could not be determined how the primer control became unlocked. The engine was started and ran normally during the postaccident examination. When the primer control was placed in the position found after the accident and the power was reduced to 1,000 rpm, the engine lost all power. The airplane was not equipped with an electrical system and therefore could not be restarted in flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.