ERA11CA432 · McFarland WM H RANS S6S
McFarland WM H RANS S6S · Accident: nose over/nose down during takeoff
From Robert Newlon Field (I41) to Robert Newlon Field (I41)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA11CA432
- 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
McFarland WM H RANS S6S
- Aircraft type
- Mcfarland WM RANS S6S
- 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
- N434WM
- Operator
- Paul E. Adams · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Robert Newlon Field (I41), Huntington, WVTo Robert Newlon Field (I41), Huntington, WV
- 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
- Nose over/nose down
- 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
During the initial portion of a training flight in the tailwheel-equipped amateur-built airplane, the flight instructor demonstrated two takeoffs and landings to the pilot. The pilot then assumed the controls and began the takeoff roll. The flight instructor directed the pilot to rotate the tail of the airplane into the air by increasing nose down pitch. According to the flight instructor, the pilot did not add enough forward pressure and the airplane seemed like it was still in a nose high attitude. The flight instructor then assisted the pilot by pushing forward on the control stick to what looked like a level attitude. The propeller struck the ground and the airplane nosed over, coming to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the tail and right wing. Both pilots noted no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Neither pilot had any previous experience performing takeoffs or landings in the accident airplane make and model.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to maintain proper pitch control during takeoff. Contributing to the accident was both pilots' inexperience in the airplane make/model.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA11CA432
- Event ID
- 20110801X62907
- Case number
- ERA11CA432
- 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: ffed0803cf730740391493356f41e7cb85fe8ebf9c35fbdeb162e306d0c5056f; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:32:32.255Z.