LAX93LA351 · R&K Special 01
R&K Special 01 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From 4SD to 4SD
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA351
- 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
R&K Special 01
- Aircraft type
- R K Special 01
- 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
- N115R
- Operator
- Robert L. Hugo · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4SDTo 4SD
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS FLYING HIS HOMEBUILT EXPERIMENTAL BIPLANE ON THE SMALL (3 MILE) RACE COURSE AT THE RENO NATIONAL AIR RACES. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT AFTER MAKING SEVERAL LAPS AT A HIGHER ALTITUDE, A DESCENT WAS MADE TO THE SAME ALTITUDE THAT PREVIOUS PILOTS HAD USE TO QUALIFY. THE AIRPLANE HAD 'ROUNDED' THE PYLONS & WAS FLYING DOWN THE EAST STRAIGHTAWAY, WHEN WITNESSES 'OBSERVED A SLIGHT ROLL, A ROLL CORRECTION AND IMMEDIATE PITCH DOWN . . .' ANOTHER WITNESS SAID 'PILOT WAGGLED WINGS AND PORPOISED TWICE, SECOND PORPOISE INTO GROUND.' THE PILOT SAID HE WAS FLYING WINGS LEVEL, FROM AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 50 FEET, WHEN THERE WAS A SLIGHT LEFT WING DROP FOLLOWED BY A SEVERE PITCH DOWN. HE CORRECTED BY LEVELING THE WINGS & 'LOCKING' THE STICK IN A PITCH UP POSITION, BUT REPORTEDLY, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK THE GROUND TAIL FIRST. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE PILOT INDICATED THAT HE MAY HAVE ENCOUNTERED SEVERE WINDSHEAR OR A WHIRLWIND. WAKE TURBULENCE FROM A PREVIOUS LAP WAS NEITHER RULED OUT NOR VERIFIED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO AN UNDETERMINED ENCOUNTER WITH AN UNFAVORABLE WIND/AIR CONDITION IN THE FORM OF A DUST DEVIL, WINDSHEAR, OR WAKE TURBULENCE FROM A PREVIOUS LAP. A RELATED FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE LOW ALTITUDE AT THE TIME OF THE ENCOUNTER, WHICH LIMITED THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR THE PILOT TO CORRECT THE LOSS OF CONTROL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA351
- Event ID
- 20001211X13428
- Case number
- LAX93LA351
- 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: a32d43c7783f373c8afa2bba38260a61ac2a8bbf65944c387b640d7dcb793a82; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:08:45.499Z.