CHI95LA250 · Grumman G-164
Grumman G-164 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Y37 to Y37
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA250
- 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-164
- 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
- N949X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Y37To Y37
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Ignition system, ignition points › Clearance
- Ignition system, magneto grounding lead (p-lead) › Shorted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the engine run-up, magneto check, and takeoff were normal. He reported that the engine started to pop and shake when he reduced engine power to 2050 RPM's. He applied full throttle but the engine failed to produce additional power. The airplane began to lose altitude and airspeed. An emergency landing was performed into a reservoir. The first post accident engine run was unsuccessful. The left and right magneto breaker point gaps were found set at .003 of an inch instead of .009 of an inch as required. Also the primary lead in the left magneto was grounded against the case and distributor cover. After the two discrepancies were corrected, the engine started and ran to 2050 RPM.
Probable cause
the loss of power due to the primary lead in the left magneto being grounded against the case, and the improper clearance of the breaker point gaps. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain on which to perform the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA250
- Event ID
- 20001207X03920
- Case number
- CHI95LA250
- 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: e9bab6411b2c2bc0912a8d3f320b87126ef1dcafd5f9d56751c15bfbf79aa4b4; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:32:59.782Z.