DEN83LA211 · Piper PA-18
Piper PA-18 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to McElroy Airfield (20V)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA211
- 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
Piper PA-18
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N2621K
- Operator
- Roland A. Jones · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo McElroy Airfield (20V), Kremmling, CO
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 › Carburetor heat, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LANDING ON A PRIVATE ARPT THAT WAS CLOSED TO PUBLIC USE, THE PLT WAS PROHIBITED FROM USING IT TO TAKEOFF AGAIN. HE RECEIVED PERMISSION FROM THE OWNER OF A GRAVEL PLT TO USE HIS 'HAUL ROAD' WHICH WAS LOCATED NEXT TO THE ARPT. THE ELEVATION OF THE ROAD WAS ABOUT 9400 FT. THE PLT TAXIED OFF THE ARPT & ONTO THE GRAVEL PLT ROAD. HE STATED THAT DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, HE LOWERED THE TAIL AS HE APPROACHED LIFT-OFF SPEED. AT THAT TIME, THE ACFT HIT A ROLLING DIP IN THE ROAD & LIFTED OFF TO ABOUT 15 TO 20 FT AGL & ROLLED THE ACFT INTO A SHALLOW RIGHT TURN. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, HE EXPERIENCED A POWER LOSS AT THAT TIME. HE LEVELED THE WINGS AND APPLIED FULL FLAPS IN AN ATTEMPT TO CONTINUE FLYING. REPORTEDLY, THE ACFT THEN HIT ON ITS NOSE & SPUN 270 DEG TO THE LEFT. AN EXAM REVEALED THE CARB HEAT WAS ON & THE MIXTURE WAAS AT FULL RICH, BUT NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE DENSITY ALT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE ABOUT 10,500 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA211
- Event ID
- 20001214X44510
- Case number
- DEN83LA211
- 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: 42aa49ef8f4f02840a692be90f51f495fb8dd1e7520f4895b4be23142c59331c; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:29:58.188Z.