FTW92LA235 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-G
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-G · Accident during initial climb
From Gallup Municipal Airport (GUP) to Falcon Field (FFZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA235
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-G
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research 415
- 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
- N94424
- Operator
- Porter, Marley · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gallup Municipal Airport (GUP)To Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZ
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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(cfi) › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CFI WAS CHECKING OUT A PILOT IN HIS NEWLY PURCHASED AIRPLANE ON THE FLIGHT BACK TO HIS HOME STATION. THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED WITH A FULL LOAD OF FUEL AND ATTEMPTED TO CLIMB INTO THE RISING TERRAIN SURROUNDING THE AIRPORT. THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT STATED THAT 'THE GROUND OUT CLIMBED THE AIRPLANE'. UNABLE TO CLIMB, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LAND IN THE FIRST OPEN AREA THAT BECAME AVAILABLE. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A FENCE POST AND A FENCE DURING LANDING ROLLOUT ON A RUTTED DIRT ROAD. DENSITY ALTITUDE AT THE AIRPORT WAS 8400 FEET AT THE TIME OF THEIR DEPARTURE. THE CFI HAD ONE HOUR IN THE TYPE OF AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE PERFORMANCE CAPABILITY OF THE AIRCRAFT. FACTORS WERE THE RISING TERRAIN AND HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA235
- Event ID
- 20001211X15704
- Case number
- FTW92LA235
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-09-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 70b7404161a79b3f4740c40db445953b9cc18b1004e4b94e21728492409177c6; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:35:01.174Z.