CEN13LA193 · Piper J3C-65
Freeman Heritage Collection Piper J3C-65 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during takeoff
From Old Kingsbury Aerodrome (85TE) to Old Kingsbury Aerodrome (85TE)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA193
- 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
Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N88313
- Operator
- Freeman Heritage Collection
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Old Kingsbury Aerodrome (85TE), Seguin, TXTo Old Kingsbury Aerodrome (85TE), Seguin, TX
- 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 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and student pilot planned on departing from a private grass airfield and fly to another airfield, in order to refuel the airplane before practicing landings. The instructor reported that the airplane had 3 gallons of fuel onboard. Shortly after takeoff, when the airplane was about 200 feet in the air, the flight instructor realized engine power was decreasing. The instructor reported that the throttle was already at full power and with obstacles ahead, he elected to turn back to the departure runway. The instructor made a 150-degree turn, but was unable to recover from the turn, and the left wing impacted terrain. The instructor added that the engine may have had carburetor icing, though he did not apply carburetor heat. An automated weather station located about 13 miles west of the accident site, reported, temperature 72 degrees F, and a dew point of 36 degrees F. A review of the carburetor icing probability chart, indicated that the airplane was operating in an area that was associated with a risk of carburetor ice formation, at glide and cruise power. A visual examination of the airplane revealed that the carburetor and gascolator were broken off during the impact, and the fuel tank was empty. No malfunctions or failures were noted that would have precluded normal operation. A reason for the loss of power was not determined.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power for reasons that could not be undetermined because an examination of the engine did not reveal any malfunctions or failures that would preclude normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA193
- Event ID
- 20130315X53441
- Case number
- CEN13LA193
- 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: 1cb8d2d9fafed75af92711918e06cabf0fd7a82280b2a81f342b19b886d5c579; retrieved 2026-09-15T21:06:18.310Z.