WPR14CA009 · Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT
J & J Aircraft Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Tilden, TX (no airport) to Pleasanton Municipal Airport (PEZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14CA009
- 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
Beech A36 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N2051N
- Operator
- J & J Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tilden, TX (no airport)To Pleasanton Municipal Airport (PEZ), Pleasanton, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 35 years (built 1978)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the private airstrip was muddy and soft due to rain showers the night before. During the short field takeoff, the airplane drifted left of centerline and the left main landing gear encountered mud which impeded ground speed. The pilot applied right rudder control to re-center the airplane on the airstrip as the takeoff was continued. After rotation, the pilot kept the airplane in ground effect to build airspeed, however, he was approaching the end of the airstrip and trees. The pilot initiated a steep angle of attack which resulted in the airplane stalling about 60 feet above ground level. The airplane descended, collided with the ground, and cartwheeled before coming to rest. The wings and fuselage were substantially damaged. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to continue the takeoff from a wet and soft airstrip which resulted in his failure to maintain adequate airspeed and aircraft control during the takeoff initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14CA009
- Event ID
- 20131007X63238
- Case number
- WPR14CA009
- 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: cf56e3709e53a0a5a92b8557a4ae5aa71b7c6c082af89cefa18cd9f6d34a966d; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:56:31.354Z.