ERA12FA513 · McLeod Alan FW-190 1/2 SCALE
McLeod Alan FW-190 1/2 SCALE · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach
From Columbus Airport (CSG) to Columbus Airport (CSG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12FA513
- 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
McLeod Alan FW-190 1/2 SCALE
- Aircraft type
- Mcleod Alan FW-190
- 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
- N149AM
- Operator
- George A. Wade · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Columbus Airport (CSG), Columbus, GATo Columbus Airport (CSG), Columbus, GA
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was performing pattern work at the airport. After conducting a touch-and-go landing on runway 24, with more than 1,638 feet of runway ahead, the pilot turned the airplane right and advised the controller that he had a partial loss of engine power and intended to land on runway 13. Near the approach end of runway 13, the pilot banked left, stalled, pitched nose down, and impacted the ground within 157 feet of the runway threshold. A witness reported that the engine was running rough but not sputtering. Another witness stated that the engine was not developing full power, and an airframe and powerplant mechanic reported that the engine sounded as if it were operating between 1,200 and 1,300 rpm.
Examination of the flight controls revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction. Examination of the engine revealed no evidence of preimpact mechanical failure or malfunction of the power train, air induction, or fuel metering systems; however, postaccident testing of the spark plugs revealed that five exhibited weak spark, which would have been detected during an engine run-up before takeoff.
About the time of the accident, the temperature and dew point were favorable for serious icing at glide power. The engine sounds described by the witnesses are consistent with carburetor icing, as is the pilot’s report of a partial loss of power after operating at a reduced power setting in the traffic pattern and then advancing the power after the touch-and-go landing. It could not be determined why the pilot did not elect to land the airplane on the remaining runway ahead.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering following a partial loss of engine power. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s decision not to land on the remaining runway ahead, and the partial loss of engine power due to carburetor ice.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12FA513
- Event ID
- 20120820X02522
- Case number
- ERA12FA513
- 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: 2cc8e63185475e72b20aaec6e1835d6f3bf3346f90f59bd60bfaf5c2bad41dcc; retrieved 2026-09-13T22:34:04.871Z.