ATL91LA111 · Rider-Charles AEROSPORT SCAMP AEROSPORT
Rider-Charles AEROSPORT SCAMP AEROSPORT · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91LA111
- 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
Rider-Charles AEROSPORT SCAMP AEROSPORT
- Aircraft type
- Rider Charles AEROSPORT SCAMP
- 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
- N9994A
- Operator
- Herman, Judd M. & Smith, Ricky
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Maintenance, adjustment, improper
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ESTABLISHED IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, THE ENGINE QUIT, AND THE HOME BUILT AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES BEFORE IMPACTING THE GROUND IN A NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. THE PILOT WAS FATALLY INJURED. A PILOT AT THE AIRPORT REPORTED THAT THE ACCIDENT PILOT HAD BEEN WORKING ON THE ENGINE EARLIER IN THE DAY. DURING GROUND MAINTENANCE, THE ENGINE RAN ROUGHLY AT LOW RPM, AND QUIT SEVERAL TIMES DURING TAXI. HE ALSO OBSERVED THE ENGINE QUIT ON LANDING ROLL-OUT FROM A PREVIOUS FLIGHT THAT DAY. ANOTHER WITNESS HAD SEEN BLACK SMOKE TRAILING THE AIRPLANE DURING A PREVIOUS FLIGHT, AND HAD STATED SO TO THE ACCIDENT PILOT. THE PILOT TOLD HIM THAT HE WAS HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE CARBURETOR. INSPECTION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT ALL SPARK PLUGS WERE HEAVILY SOOTED, AND ONE SPARK PLUG GAP WAS COMPLETELY BRIDGED WITH SOOT DEPOSITS. REPORTEDLY, THERE WAS NO SPRING TENSION IN THE CARBURETOR MIXTURE CONTROL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER ADJUSTMENT OF THE ENGINE CARBURETOR, AND HIS OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT WITH A KNOWN POWERPLANT DEFICIENCY. FACTORS IN THIS ACCIDENT WERE: THE LACK OF SPRING TENSION FOR THE FUEL MIXTURE, AND THE FOULED CONDITION OF THE ENGINE SPARK PLUGS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91LA111
- Event ID
- 20001212X17169
- Case number
- ATL91LA111
- 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: 66f099ae6792c5db3b00569f4b27a369985f6bb486b4826e3968e1b2de6bed95; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:46:16.660Z.