NYC00LA261 · Carlson CA-8
Carlson CA-8 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Aero Flight Center Airport (55OI) to Salem Airpark Inc Airport (38D)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC00LA261
- 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
Carlson CA-8
- Aircraft type
- Carlson CA-8
- 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
- N47XY
- Operator
- Robert Mason
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aero Flight Center Airport (55OI)To Salem Airpark Inc Airport (38D), Salem, OH
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to pilot, he performed a thorough pre-flight inspection and run-up of the homebuilt airplane prior to takeoff. He also stated that he checked the position of the fuel valve, which was located under the cockpit panel, by 'bumping' it with his foot. During the takeoff, the airplane accelerated and lifted off normally; however, when the airplane reached 150 feet above the runway, the engine began to lose power, 'like fuel starvation.' The pilot made a right turn and performed a forced landing to a soybean field. During the forced landing, the airplane nosed over, and came to rest inverted. The pilot stated the airplane's fuel tank capacity was 10 gallons, and he departed with about 4 gallons of fuel on board. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any pre-impact malfunctions; however, it was noted that the airplane's fuel valve, did not contain a 'hard stop' or detent, and could be rotated 360 degrees. The pilot reported he had not flown the airplane for over a year prior to the accident, and he did not recall the nature of the valve used during the airplane's construction. He believed the valve had a detent or manual stop, and was not aware that it could be rotated 360 degrees.
Probable cause
Fuel starvation as a result of the pilot's inadequate pre-flight inspection. A factor in this accident was the inadequate marking of the fuel selector valve to clearly indicate a fully open position.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC00LA261
- Event ID
- 20001212X22059
- Case number
- NYC00LA261
- 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: 21a6d55130187a907d32c23e6032fb66add4eab1689203585801c02b1234c6e5; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:05:33.848Z.