WPR13LA363 · Quarnoccio AVID FLYER
Quarnoccio AVID FLYER · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Beagle Sky Ranch Airport (OR96) to Beagle Sky Ranch Airport (OR96)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13LA363
- 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
Quarnoccio AVID FLYER
- Aircraft type
- Quarnoccio AVID FLYER
- 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
- N399Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Beagle Sky Ranch Airport (OR96), White City, ORTo Beagle Sky Ranch Airport (OR96), White City, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 23 years (built 1990)
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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 (total)
- 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 pilot reported that he departed in the experimental amateur-built airplane and that, during climbout, he noticed that the engine coolant temperature was above normal and continuing to rise, so he initiated a turnback toward the airport. The pilot retarded the throttle slightly and leveled off, but the temperature continued to rise. The airplane crossed the runway midfield and then entered the downwind leg. The engine rpm dropped, and the engine began running roughly and then quit as the pilot began turning the airplane onto the base leg. The pilot recognized that he would be unable to reach the runway, so he selected a field short of the threshold for a forced landing. The pilot intentionally stalled the airplane a few feet above the ground to touch down sooner because he wouldn't be able to clear a fence ahead. The airplane landed hard, and the main landing gear bungees failed. The airplane then struck the fence. The investigation could not determine why the engine coolant operating temperature reported by the pilot exceeded the engine manufacturer's maximum operating temperature or the accuracy of the installed engine temperature indication system. However, the timing of the pilot's observation of unusual coolant temperature and the subsequent loss of engine power support an engine overtemperature-related problem; postaccident engine examination was unable to determine the reason for the coolant overtemperature.
Probable cause
Excessive engine operating temperature, which resulted in engine failure and a forced landing. The reason for the excessive engine operating temperature could not be determined during postaccident engine examination.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13LA363
- Event ID
- 20130808X65644
- Case number
- WPR13LA363
- 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: a3e670b00ef857d9dc39e68d7e668b2a03f3bf3995d2072ec691feaf74df644c; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:28:06.200Z.