WPR09LA082 · Stits Flut-R-BUG SA6B
Stits Flut-R-BUG SA6B · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Los Olivos, CA to Santa Ynez Airport (IZA)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09LA082
- 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
Stits Flut-R-BUG SA6B
- Aircraft type
- Stits Flut R Bug SA6
- 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
- N3129
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Olivos, CATo Santa Ynez Airport (IZA), Santa Ynez, CA
- 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
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a local area flight, the experimental airplane's engine began sputtering. The pilot attempted to rectify the situation by changing fuel tanks, applying carburetor heat, and checking the magnetos. His actions were unsuccessful, and all power was lost. The pilot made a forced landing on a public road. Thereafter, the pilot consulted with a mechanic at his home base airport that was located about 7 miles from the forced landing site. The pilot opined that vapor lock was a likely cause for his loss of engine power. In preparation for takeoff from the road, the pilot performed an engine run-up. The engine appeared to operate normally, and the pilot proceeded to takeoff. Seconds after becoming airborne and gaining at most 50 feet of altitude, the engine again started sputtering. The road curved away from the pilot's flight path, and the pilot opted to descend into trees. The airplane was subsequently recovered and was examined under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) supervision. The FAA coordinator reported that no external evidence of a preimpact engine malfunction or anomaly was noted. The engine lost power for undetermined reasons.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power for undetermined reasons. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's improper decision to depart from a road with a known unresolved engine problem.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09LA082
- Event ID
- 20090115X51232
- Case number
- WPR09LA082
- 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: 2440419ef0a2dcb3fcbd71bea378b2622a723bee29b2c1f8bfb37db8be452d44; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:41:40.878Z.