NYC08LA322 · Nagel SAL 2/3 P51
Northeastern Aero Classics Nagel SAL 2/3 P51 · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during initial climb
From Schenectady County Airport (SCH) to Schenectady County Airport (SCH)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA322
- 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
Nagel SAL 2/3 P51
- Aircraft type
- Nagel SAL-2
- 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
- N51WW
- Operator
- Northeastern Aero Classics
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Schenectady County Airport (SCH), Schenectady, NYTo Schenectady County Airport (SCH), Schenectady, NY
- 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
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The owner of the amateur built, automotive-engine-powered airplane decided he lacked the experience in tailwheel-equipped airplanes to perform a maintenance flight, and arranged for another pilot to fly the airplane after resolving a rough running engine issue. A review of video footage of the flight revealed that after capturing the takeoff and initial climb, the videographer announced "he's close to a stall," and lowered the camera. The descent and impact were not captured, but the sound of the engine was recorded. Review of the audio track of the video revealed smooth, continuous engine sound until the sounds of impact. According to one witness, the tailwheel was raised almost immediately, and the airplane was airborne after a brief ground roll. The climb was "poor" and the airplane’s altitude above the ground reached only 200 feet, after a 4,000 foot-long initial climb. He said, "The [pitch] attitude of the aircraft was quite high and seemed close to a stall condition." He added that the engine did not "falter" or change power/rpm throughout his observation of the flight. Examination of the wreckage by Federal Aviation Administration aviation safety inspectors revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomalies.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during the initial climb, which led to an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA322
- Event ID
- 20081009X21549
- Case number
- NYC08LA322
- 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: 4fb6cab67af1f92e1ef60537a2dc7816583c81e63ce69cd0e0eb86c7367bb65f; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:32:43.972Z.