CHI02LA268 · Rebholz Rans S-10
Rebholz Rans S-10 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Blackhawk Airfield (87Y) to Blackhawk Airfield (87Y)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA268
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Rebholz Rans S-10
- Aircraft type
- Rebholz RANS S-10
- 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
- N92PD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Blackhawk Airfield (87Y), Cottage Grove, WITo Blackhawk Airfield (87Y), Cottage Grove, WI
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Engine assembly, piston › Seized
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Low altitude flight/maneuver, attempted
- Powerplant › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane impacted terrain during a forced landing attempt, following a loss of engine power shortly after takeoff. A witness reported that approximately 30-40 seconds after the takeoff roll was initiated, he heard the pilot announce over the Unicom frequency, "Mayday, Mayday, my engine quit." The witness reported the airplane was about 200 feet above ground level (agl) and the left wing of the airplane was perpendicular to the ground. The witness stated the airplane was turning toward the south when it impacted a cornfield adjacent to the airport. The witness thought the pilot was attempting to return to the airport. The witness reported the pilot had problems with the aircraft engine approximately one-year prior, and had repaired the engine subsequent to a forced landing. The accident flight was the first flight since the engine repair. The engine was found seized and a teardown inspection was performed. The aft piston had seized to its cylinder as a result of a heat seizure. There was evidence another seizure event that had occurred prior to the accident flight. According to the engine manufacturer, a heat seizure is a condition that occurs when the exhaust gas temperature exceeds 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. The resulting piston expansion exceeds the manufacturer's design tolerances and the piston seizes to the cylinder wall. The minimum temperature required for a heat seizure is reduced if the piston is contaminated during a previous seizure event and is not repaired.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to turn back to the airport following the loss of engine power during initial climb, the pilot not maintaining airspeed and aircraft control, which resulted in the stall at a low altitude. An additional cause was the seizure of the engine piston resulting in the total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA268
- Event ID
- 20020926X05219
- Case number
- CHI02LA268
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-09-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ddf82d97aad724c5f73a134c26c28070a521cde84920228340d7fe036127602e; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:53:04.713Z.