FTW97LA209 · Giertz VMAX PROBE
Giertz VMAX PROBE · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Lubang Airport (LBX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA209
- 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
Giertz VMAX PROBE
- Aircraft type
- Giertz VMAX PROBE
- 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
- N1200M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lubang Airport (LBX)To 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot designed, and built the aircraft. He was conducting the aircraft's initial test flight and was not wearing a helmet. Witnesses reported that immediately after takeoff it appeared that the 'aircraft was being over controlled until it was halfway down the runway.' Downwind the pilot reported by radio he had 'good control,' the engine's temperature was 230 degrees Fahrenheit, and he was returning to land. Witnesses observed the aircraft turn final approach to runway 35 in a stable attitude and in a descent. Approximately 5 to 20 feet above the runway, the 'aircraft lost directional stability in yaw mode then pitched abruptly toward the ground.' The aircraft impacted the runway, 'bounced up and went knife edge to the ground.' The aircraft impacted the runway about 625 feet from the initial impact point, and slid 625 feet to a stop inverted. Examination of the flight controls revealed no discontinuity that may have existed prior to the aircraft impacting the ground. The 63 year old pilot became qualified as a private pilot on January 9, 1982. According to his pilot log book he had a total flight time of 261.0 hours, and he had logged 8 hours within the last 90 days.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during an approach to landing. A related factor was the pilot's lack of experience in make and model of aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA209
- Event ID
- 20001208X08114
- Case number
- FTW97LA209
- 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: c4b8228995ac3aff8659bb88a76da0014f8ab2e2f37a987687e3f6358736fdc4; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:56:51.562Z.