CHI08CA086 · Rans S-4 Coyote I
Rans S-4 Coyote I · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Airlake Airport (LVN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08CA086
- 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
- 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
Rans S-4 Coyote I
- Aircraft type
- Rans S-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
- N215LY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Airlake Airport (LVN), Lakeville, MNTo 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he intended to takeoff in the tai wheel-equipped airplane from runway 12 and remain in the traffic pattern. During the takeoff roll, the pilot put in full right aileron and held the elevator at a neutral position. He reported that he positioned the rudder "to maintain course on the longitudinal axis of the runway." He reported that during takeoff rotation, the airplane encountered a 5 - 7 knot right crosswind gust of wind which lifted the right wing up about 45 - 60 degrees in less than 1 second. The airplane veered to the left 45 degrees. The pilot reported that he attempted to use elevator and rudder inputs, but they "produced little or no response." The airplane veered further left, lost altitude, and impacted terrain. The right main landing gear collapsed and the tailwheel tail spring was bent left, which resulted in substantial damage. The pilot indicated that he had a total of 190 flight hours with 1 hour in make and model. The pilot reported there was no mechanical malfunction or failure.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control and his inadequate compensation for the crosswind conditions. Factors included the pilot's lack of experience in the make and model of the airplane and the crosswind gust.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08CA086
- Event ID
- 20080310X00289
- Case number
- CHI08CA086
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 39d4cd89a14ff15223e4a719196c0e9dc0aae599560b89bfc443e3820f60c70e; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:25:02.102Z.