CHI83DA308 · VON Berg VEE BEE 4
VON Berg VEE BEE 4 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 2SG · Saginaw, MI to 2SG · Saginaw, MI
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI83DA308
- 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
VON Berg VEE BEE 4
- Aircraft type
- Von Berg VEE BEE 4
- 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
- N4VB
- Operator
- Dick Von Berg
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2SG · Saginaw, MITo 2SG · Saginaw, MI
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, improper
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Saginaw, MI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE HOME BUILT AIRCRAFT WAS MAKING A HIGH SPEED TAXI RUN WHEN THE AIRCRAFT INADVERTENTLY BECAME AIRBORNE. THE PLANE CLIMBED TO ABOUT 100 FT AGL AND THEN THE ENGINE LOST POWER. DURING LANDING, THE AIRCRAFT WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE LANDING FLARE WAS INCOMPLETE. ALSO, HE STATED THAT THE ENGINE LOST POWER DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. ADDITIONALLY, HE REPORTED THAT THE ELECTRIC AUX PUMP WAS NOT ON, THE FUEL LEVELS WERE LOW, THE FRONT FUEL TANK WAS NOT ON AND THE PITCH TRIM HAD BEEN PRESET FOR A CLIMB.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI83DA308
- Event ID
- 20020917X03099
- Case number
- CHI83DA308
- 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: c01ac5429d311bc4939bbf0426914639bcbe004078407092344e2336013079c8; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:56:12.701Z.