LAX95LA325 · Chambers C1C
Chambers C1C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From O15 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA325
- 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
- 1 · 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
Chambers C1C
- Aircraft type
- Chambers C1
- 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
- N177GE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O15To 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/spin
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fuel system › Contamination
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vso), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Maintenance had just been completed to both prepare the aircraft for the upcoming Reno Air Races and complete an annual inspection. During the process new wings of a different design were installed. On the morning of the accident a ground static run-up of the engine yielded poor performance due to fuel flow problems. Water was found in the carburetor float bowl. About 1 quart of fluid was drained from the fuel system to clear the contamination and a second check found no contamination. The engine was again subjected to a ground static run-up and found satisfactory. Prior to the final takeoff, the pilot performed two high-speed full power taxi tests. The pilot then initiated a takeoff and flew down to the runway departure end before a climb was started. About 100 feet agl in the takeoff initial climb, the engine quit, then went back to full power. The pilot then began a steep climb to gain pattern altitude and the engine began surging as the aircraft reached 700 feet agl. The engine problem continued throughout the rest of the aircraft's flight. The pilot was able to fly a downwind and base leg. After turning final, the pilot performed two slip maneuvers and an S-turn to lose altitude. During the turn, the bank angle reached 60 degrees, then suddenly increased to 90 degrees. The aircraft then stalled, snapped over inside onto it's back and spun to the ground. The carburetor and fuselage-mounted fuel tank were destroyed in the collision sequence. Control system integrity was established. No other discrepancies were noted during the examination of the wreckage.
Probable cause
a loss of engine power due to fuel system contamination and the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering for an emergency landing. Factors in the accident were: the inadequate procedures used to purge the fuel system of known contaminants during post maintenance testing, and the installation of newly designed wings which may have had aerodynamic qualities unfamiliar to the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA325
- Event ID
- 20001207X04520
- Case number
- LAX95LA325
- 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: a1aa5a892f91e9f26e507beff62ab88cf40b79c795f93d9e1a19810eb917b65d; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:38:09.301Z.