NYC90LA113 · Aeronca 7AC
Aeronca 7AC · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From BYRON, ME to Livermore Falls, ME
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90LA113
- 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
Aeronca 7AC
- Aircraft type
- Aeronca 7
- 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
- N85173
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BYRON, METo Livermore Falls, ME
- 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 control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Rumford, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STRAPPED A 12 FT CANOE (ESTIMATED WEIGHT 35 LBS) EXTERNALLY TO A FLOAT AND ATTEMPTED A TAKEOFF WITH NO WIND. THE LAKE IS APPROXIMATELY 1 MILE LONG AND ORIENTED NORTH/SOUTH. THREE SIDES OF THE LAKE HAVE HIGH TERRAIN. THE TERRAIN TO THE SOUTH IS SWAMPY AND HAS LOW TREES. THE TAKEOFF STARTED AT THE NORTH END AND WAS TO THE SOUTH. THE PILOT SAID HE HAD DIFFICULTY IN GETTING ON THE STEP, USED UP TOO MUCH LAKE SURFACE AND MADE A STEEP TURN TO GO NORTH. HE GOT AIRBORNE WHILE TRAVELING NORTH; HOWEVER HE HAD USED UP TOO MUCH LAKE SURFACE TO CONTINUE, AND MADE A STEEP TURN TO THE LEFT TO GO SOUTH. HE SAID THE WING STALLED AND HE STRUCK THE WATER, RIPPING OFF THE FLOATS. HE SAID THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME HE HAD TRIED TO FLY WITH A CANOE ON THE FLOATS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT MADE A STEEP TURN TO AVOID THE SHORE LINE AND INADVERTENTLY STALLED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOTS DECISION TO TAKEOFF WITH A CANOE STRAPPED TO ONE OF THE FLOATS AND HIS LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN CARRYING A CANOE ON THE FLOATS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90LA113
- Event ID
- 20001212X23267
- Case number
- NYC90LA113
- 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: 993b50a0502111165719941e0c9d49729f7a90c7a42c7ca752046ce716423ddf; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:08:26.646Z.