LAX94LA155 · Grumman G-164B
Chico Aerial Applicators Grumman G-164B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX94LA155
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Grumman G-164B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-164
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N6528K
- Operator
- Chico Aerial Applicators
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 137: Agricultural
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not attained
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft was loaded with 190 gallons of fertilizer and an additional 45 gallons of fuel when the pilot attempted a downwind takeoff from a private dirt agricultural airstrip. The pilot said he was unable to maintain sufficient airspeed during his initial climbing left turn toward the northeast. He reported that he had been instructed by the aircraft operator to use a takeoff power setting of 33 inches of manifold pressure and 1,800 rpm's. In the turn, the pilot noticed the aircraft was moving toward the south in a sideward drift. Since the aircraft was not climbing, he added one inch of manifold pressure and, as he did so, noticed that the winds had increased. During the turn, the aircraft's performance became even more sluggish and the aircraft began to settle. The aircraft stalled, landed in a soft dirt field, and nosed over.
Probable cause
the failure of the pilot to obtain/maintain sufficient flying speed during a downwind takeoff and climb, compounded by his reluctance to use full available takeoff power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX94LA155
- Event ID
- 20001206X00928
- Case number
- LAX94LA155
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bad65e1e16e4363adf043dffc707f623085c22ed49c9ea181d95408cd5b7c52c; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:17:43.153Z.