FTW97LA057 · Gilbert RUTAN VARI EZE RUTAN VARI
Gilbert RUTAN VARI EZE RUTAN VARI · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA057
- 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
Gilbert RUTAN VARI EZE RUTAN VARI
- Aircraft type
- Gilbert RUTAN VARI EZE
- 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
- N18VE
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Starting procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, not set
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During hand propping of the airplane, the throttle is placed in the idle position with the ignition (magneto) switch and fuel on. However, when the engine is flooded, a clearing procedure must be used. For clearing the engine, the pilot turned off the ignition and the fuel and placed the throttle full open before pulling the propeller through backwards 10 blades. Subsequently, the pilot turned on the ignition and the fuel. However, he did not close the throttle. As the pilot pulled the propeller through a revolution, the engine started and the airplane went forward with full power. The left wing tip struck a steel pole and crossed the ramp, a taxiway, and a runway before striking windsock guy wires and coming to a stop. The airplane was not equipped with a parking brake, and at idle power a rubber parking pad at the nose served as the chock. On the Pilot/Operator Report the pilot recommended installing a hand brake, using full lean mixture for flooded procedures, and using a checklist.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to follow proper starting procedures and set the throttle to idle before hand propping.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA057
- Event ID
- 20001208X07037
- Case number
- FTW97LA057
- 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: c2ed6001a6334209b6adfb67a7eb2ff7b3824b0cdc3d8b4f95b857bc847b9cbb; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:47:47.818Z.