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ATL87LA091 · Champion 7FC

22 Mar 1987 · Bellefontaine, OH, United States

Champion 7FC · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during landing

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Event

NTSB case
ATL87LA091
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

Champion 7FC

Aircraft type
Champion 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
N90398
Operator
Kauffman,w.W. · private individual
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
Landing · landing roll
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
On ground/water collision with object
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 › Directional control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Inadequate transition/upgrade training

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT WAS LANDED ON RWY 04 WITH THE WIND FROM THE EAST AT EIGHT KTS. THE FLIGHT WAS THE FIRST SOLO IN A TAIL WHEEL EQUIPPED ACFT FOR THE PLT. HE HAD OBTAINED NO FORMAL INSTRUCTION IN A TAIL WHEEL ACFT BUT HAD FLOWN WITH A FRIEND. ON LANDING THE ACFT BOUNCED, TOUCHED DOWN AGAIN, AND YAWED RIGHT. THE ACFT RAN OFF THE RWY RIGHT SIDE AND COLLIDED WITH TREE. TO PREVENT THE ACCIDENT THE PLT RECOMMENDED OBTAINING ADDITIONAL TRAINING.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL87LA091
Event ID
20001213X30373
Case number
ATL87LA091
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: e9585cb28d66e3fbe9e51ae05b8dadb3e7c14a15c854af60a833490f9c20cb69; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:24:02.589Z.