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FTW85LA134 · Cessna 177

3 Mar 1985 · Houston, TX, United States

Champion Aviation Cessna 177 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
FTW85LA134
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

Cessna 177

Aircraft type
Cessna 177
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
N29460
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
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
Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
  • Mixture control, linkage › Separation
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Emergency procedure, improper

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

NTSB narrative

AFTER THE FOURTH TOUCH-AND-GO LANDING ON RWY 17R POWER WAS APPLIED AND A NORMAL CLIMB INIIATED. AT ABOUT 400 FT AGL POWER WAS REDUCED; THE ENGINE DEVELOPED HEAVY VIBRATIONS AND APRX 50% POWER LOSS. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL FROM THE PRIVATE PLT RECEIVING DUAL INSTRUCTION AND INITIALLY TURNED RIGHT FOLLOWED BY A LEFT DOWNWIND TURN. AT 45-60 DEGREES ANGLE-OF-BANK THE ACFT TURNED APRX 190 DEGREES IN AN EFFORT TO LAND ON RWY 35L. ACCORDING TO THE CFI THE ACFT STALLED AND CONTACTED THE GROUND LEFT WING FIRST. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT CONTINUITY IN THE MIXTURE CONTROL SYSTEM DID NOT EXIST. NO ATTACKING HARDWARE THAT WOULD CONNECT THE MIXTURE LINKAGE TO THE CARBURETOR WAS INSTALLED BY THE OPERATOR 13.8 FLT HOURS AD 35 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. WIND AT THE TIME OF THE FORCED LANDING WAS FORM 180 DEGREES AT 18 GUSTING TO 28 KTS. AFTER RE-RIGGING THE MIXTURE CONTROL LINKAGE AND REPAIRING IMPACT ENGINE DAMAGE THE ENGINE WAS SUCCESSFULLY TEST-RUN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW85LA134
Event ID
20001214X35909
Case number
FTW85LA134
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: 92c0c715982eaef0ffb6f5115f144e137bbdb79c19671c58fb75a1d8fb042fae; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:20:56.229Z.