CEN15LA263 · Belcher CH601XLB
Belcher CH601XLB · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Alpine Casparis Municipal Airport (E38) to Alpine Casparis Municipal Airport (E38)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15LA263
- 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
Belcher CH601XLB
- Aircraft type
- Belcher CH601
- 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
- N274AJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alpine Casparis Municipal Airport (E38), Alpine, TXTo Alpine Casparis Municipal Airport (E38), Alpine, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2014)
- 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 · 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot/builder, an airframe and powerplant mechanic, stated that the engine had been experiencing low oil pressure and that he performed work on the oil system the day before the accident. On the day of the accident, he taxied the airplane for about 20 minutes and did not observe any anomalies. He then departed on a postmaintenance test flight. A few minutes after takeoff, the engine sputtered and experienced a total loss of power. The pilot selected a small open area in which to land. During the forced landing approach, the pilot saw wires across the flight path and attempted to fly under them. The airplane contacted the lowest wire and the airplane nosed down into a carport alongside a residence.
The pilot reported that he examined the engine after the accident. He stated that he failed to adjust the fuel flow after installing a high-pressure fuel pump, which resulted in insufficient fuel flow to the engine.
Probable cause
The pilot/builder's failure to properly adjust the fuel flow, which resulted in reduced flow to the engine and a subsequent total loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15LA263
- Event ID
- 20150608X64926
- Case number
- CEN15LA263
- 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: bf8a19342d3ad6c8b65d85c80f1fe35552ef27e0be5fede6927bd4b9ba026edb; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:24:09.694Z.