ATL85FMG01 · McClellan J. Grote DRAGONFLY
McClellan J. Grote DRAGONFLY · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85FMG01
- 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
McClellan J. Grote DRAGONFLY
- Aircraft type
- Mcclellan J Grote DRAGONFLY
- 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
- N5275U
- Operator
- Mcclellan J. Grote · 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings › Improper
- Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings › Loose
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OWNER/BUILDER HAD PREPARED THE ACFT FOR ITS 1ST FLT. THIS PREPARATION INCLUDED HIGH SPEED TAXI TESTS, A BRAKE LINE REPAIR & ENG ADJUSTMENTS. TWO 17.6 LB BARBELL WEIGHTS WERE TIED TO THE WING LIFT BULKHEAD WITH 5/16 INCH HEMP ROPE FOR PURPOSES OF WEIGHT & BALANCE. A DECISION WAS MADE FOR THE OWNER'S FATHER, AN EXPERIENCED PLT, TO FLY THE INITIAL TEST FLT. THE PLT MADE A HIGH SPEED RUN WITH AN OPTION TO TAKEOFF & ABORTED WHEN THE ENG DEVELOPED A MISS. HE THEN PERFORMED A SATISFACTORY RUN-UP & TOOK OFF ON THE NEXT ATTEMPT. AFTER TAKING OFF, THE PLT REMAINED IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN & TURNED ONTO A DOWNWIND FOR RWY 23. THE ACFT THEN NOSED OVER & CRASHED IN A NEAR VERTICAL DESCENT. AN EXAM OF THE FLT CONTROL SYS REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION. ALL FRACTURES SHOWED EVIDENCE OF OVERLOAD FAILURE. THE BALLAST WEIGHTS WERE NOT SECURED IN ACCORDANCE WITH NORMAL AERONAUTICAL PRACTICES. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THEY COULD HAVE COME LOOSE & JAMMED THE FLT CONTROLS OR SHIFTED THE CG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85FMG01
- Event ID
- 20001214X35625
- Case number
- ATL85FMG01
- 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: ff1e77bfa8780126f52379c891a937dfebdfd2ee820a1a6906aa653d7f0269e5; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:08:32.701Z.