WPR10LA376 · Cessna 177 B
Cessna 177 B · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Rawlins Municipal Airport/Harvey Field (RWL) to Western Neb. Rgnl/William B. Heilig Airport (BFF)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA376
- 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
Cessna 177 B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N35296
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rawlins Municipal Airport/Harvey Field (RWL), Rawlins, WYTo Western Neb. Rgnl/William B. Heilig Airport (BFF), Scottsbluff, NE
- 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)
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, prior to initiating the takeoff roll, he did not lean the fuel mixture. The airplane initially accelerated slowly, which the pilot expected at the high density altitude airport. About 50 feet above the ground, the pilot observed the engine rpm decreased from 2,700 to 2,500 rpm; the airplane was also losing altitude. The pilot elected to reduce the power and land on the runway overrun area; during the landing, the airplane struck a rock with the left main landing gear, which resulted in substantial damage to the elevator. A postaccident examination revealed that the spark plugs were carbon fouled, indicating that the engine was operating too rich. During the first engine run-up, the engine ran rough. After the spark plugs were cleaned, the engine ran normally with no anomalies noted. The airplane’s takeoff checklist notes, MIXTURE -- LEAN for maximum power at airports above 3,000 feet in elevation. The elevation of the airport was 6,813 feet. The density altitude at the time of the accident was 8,895 feet.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning, failure to properly use the takeoff checklist, and failure to lean the fuel mixture, which resulted in the airplane’s inability to attain sufficient airspeed due to the rich fuel mixture.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA376
- Event ID
- 20100731X30316
- Case number
- WPR10LA376
- 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. 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: 4490404d9b90f4f7bba71e2a5704326d81ae29923105170a62069c42fa3e371b; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:46:45.889Z.