GAA15CA199 · Norton Claude C TAILWIND W8
Norton Claude C TAILWIND W8 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Portales Municipal Airport (PRZ) to Clovis Municipal Airport (CVN)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA199
- 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
Norton Claude C TAILWIND W8
- Aircraft type
- Norton Claude TAILWIND W8
- 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
- N299CB
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portales Municipal Airport (PRZ), Portales, NMTo Clovis Municipal Airport (CVN), Clovis, NM
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2002)
- 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 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the takeoff roll with an air density altitude near 7,400 feet, the pilot reported that the takeoff roll "seemed normal with a bit longer requirement as expected for high temperatures conditions". The pilot reported that after takeoff the climb performance was "low".
He stated that the wind shifted direction during the initial climb; he maneuvered the airplane into the wind, and to avoid power transmission line wires and a highway by "gradual right turning". While maneuvering, the airplane settled into a "mushing descent" and impacted terrain.
The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. During the impact with terrain the airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and empennage.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack while maneuvering and a subsequent aerodynamic stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA199
- Event ID
- 20150727X30516
- Case number
- GAA15CA199
- 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: 69a5d451dcf475233b25a0853acb2a0f45d5115cbf79fd43c7696a8c8e6a0d57; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:34:51.969Z.