CEN11FA531 · Edwards Douglas L SKY RANGER
Edwards Douglas L SKY RANGER · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Wautoma Municipal Airport (Y50) to Maquoketa, IA
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA531
- 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
Edwards Douglas L SKY RANGER
- Aircraft type
- Edwards Douglas SKY RANGER
- 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
- N7501Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wautoma Municipal Airport (Y50), Wautoma, WITo Maquoketa, IA
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot took off from a grass runway to the east for the cross-country flight. An eyewitness observed the airplane climb to an altitude of about 100 to 150 feet above the ground. Over the east end of the runway, the airplane began a left turn to return to the airfield. During the turn, the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall, the nose of the airplane dropped, and the airplane descended and impacted the ground. The airplane was examined at the accident site. Flight control continuity was established from the cockpit control stick and rudder pedals to each respective flight control surface. An examination of the wreckage showed the engine, engine mounts, cowling, firewall and forward cockpit bent and crushed aft and twisted counterclockwise about 30 degrees, consistent with the airplane being in a left hand, nose-down spiral when it impacted the ground. An examination of the engine and other airplane systems showed no preimpact anomalies that would have contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain proper airspeed and attitude control of the airplane in the turn, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA531
- Event ID
- 20110801X20718
- Case number
- CEN11FA531
- 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: 26be8e36ad1d88c8196f576582be09809b722f00ef3372514f0624d712b3cb3d; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:40:50.337Z.