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MKC84LU006 · Rotec RALLY 3

16 Jul 1984 · Grand Island, NE, United States

Rotec RALLY 3 · Accident: on ground/water encounter with weather during takeoff

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Event

NTSB case
MKC84LU006
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

Rotec RALLY 3

Aircraft type
Rotec RALLY 3
Category
Ultralight
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
UNREG
Operator
Unknown
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 103: Ultralight
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
Takeoff · roll/run
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 encounter with weather
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

  • Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

BEFORE THE FLT, THE INSTRUCTOR SAW A THUNDERSTORM APPROXIMATETLY 20 MI NORTH OF THE FIELD, MOVING SLOWLY TO THE SOUTH-SOUTHEAST. HE & THE STUDENT ELECTED TO MAKE A SHORT FLT. AFTER TAKING OFF, THEY MADE A PRACTICE FORCED LANDING IN AN OPEN FIELD ABOUT 1 MI NORTHWEST OF THE DEPARTURE POINT. AFTER THE FORCED LANDING, THEY START ANOTHER TAKEOFF RUN. AT THE SAME TIME THE TAIL WAS RAISED DURING THE ROLL, A SUDDEN GUST OF WIND WAS ENCOUNTERED. THE INSTRUCTOR SAID THE AIR WAS DEAD CALM, THEN 1 SEC LATER, IT GUSTED TO 40 MPH. HE SAID THAT THE ULTRALIGHT WENT STRAIGHT UP IN A FLAT CLIMB, MUCH LIKE A HELICOPTER. AFTER REACHING AN ESTIMATED 200 FT AGL, THE ROUGH AIR REPORTEDLY ROLLED THE ULTRALIGHT INTO A 90 DEG LEFT BANK & IT BEGAN A FAST DESCENT. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE VEHICLE IMPACTED IN A SHALLOW POND WHILE TRAVELING ABOUT 50 MPH. THE STUDENT WAS WEARING A MOTORCYCLE HELMET & STATED THAT IT SAVED HIM FROM HAVING A SERIOUS HEAD INJURY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC84LU006
Event ID
20001214X40454
Case number
MKC84LU006
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1984-07-17.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 1b000b74463f6981f5c662898c0a6630fbc0d331b3fe9e2cead1aeec8b2ca45b; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:31:54.358Z.