WPR11LA216 · Dralle (Van's Aircraft) RV-8
Dralle (Van's Aircraft) RV-8 · Accident: abrupt maneuver during landing
From Los Banos Municipal Airport (KLSN) to Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA216
- 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
Dralle (Van's Aircraft) RV-8
- Aircraft type
- Dralle (van's Aircraft) RV-8
- 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
- N998RV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Banos Municipal Airport (KLSN), Los Banos, CATo Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK), Livermore, 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the experimental, amateur-built, tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that he performed a straight-in approach and subsequent landing with a gusting crosswind. As the airplane slowed, and the tail dropped, he applied full aft elevator control input. The pilot applied brakes and then initiated a turn onto the taxiway. He stated that during the turn a gust of wind caught the right wing, tipping the airplane onto the left wing and causing the left aileron hinge to scrape on the runway. The airplane then bounced two times on the left main landing gear. The airplane came to a stop after the pilot applied corrective control inputs. Postaccident examination revealed that the left landing gear mounting box and the adjacent fuselage structure was bent. Additionally the left wing sustained buckling damage to its leading edge, adjacent to the fuselage mounting point and landing gear box. The damage was consistent with the left main landing gear being subjected to an excessive side load. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. He further stated that the accident could have been prevented by either slowing the airplane down prior to exiting at the chosen taxiway or continuing to the next available taxiway.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to exit the runway while still traveling at an excessive speed and his subsequent loss of directional control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA216
- Event ID
- 20110502X75758
- Case number
- WPR11LA216
- 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: fdd8927e2e8cbe3029bcc5a9d103496f1c37fbb036e22670f2a90447206bb473; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:07:13.749Z.