GAA16CA067 · Taylorcraft BC12 65 D
Taylorcraft BC12 65 D · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during initial climb
From Mauston New Lisbon Union Airport (82C) to Mauston New Lisbon Union Airport (82C)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA067
- 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
Taylorcraft BC12 65 D
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BC12
- 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
- N33939
- Operator
- Zindorf, Chris M. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mauston New Lisbon Union Airport (82C), New Lisbon, WITo Mauston New Lisbon Union Airport (82C), New Lisbon, WI
- Aircraft age
- About 74 years (built 1941)
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › 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
According to the pilot, immediately after takeoff, the wind speed increased and he elected to complete one pattern and land. With a right quartering head wind, the pilot touched down yet reported that a wind gust made the airplane veer to the right side of the runway. He recalled that he applied full power and aborted the landing. The pilot reported that when he "looked out of the windshield", he realized the airplane was on a heading to impact the airfield hangars, so he turned the airplane to the left, the airplane stalled and impacted the ground. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing strut and empennage.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies prior to or during the flight that would have prevented normal flight operation.
The wind at the nearest weather reporting station reported wind from 210 degrees true at 7 knots, with no gusts, and the departure runway heading was 14.
Probable cause
The pilot's exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack, resulting in an inadvertent aerodynamic stall and impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA067
- Event ID
- 20151202X81954
- Case number
- GAA16CA067
- 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: 2b271f3486acde274a3dcc22e2d2056a87c76960043746e41f2a52473eea6cce; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:00:17.541Z.