WPR16LA049 · Kai Engstad RV-8A
Kai Engstad RV-8A · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) on approach
From Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE) to Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16LA049
- 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
Kai Engstad RV-8A
- Aircraft type
- Kai Engstad RV-8
- 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
- N958RV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE), Salem, ORTo Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE), Salem, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2015)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 (partial)
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The purpose of the flight was to break in the engine and to evaluate the systems and flight characteristics of the newly-constructed, experimental amateur-built airplane. During the flight, the private pilot observed an elevated cylinder head temperature, which he controlled with airspeed, altitude, fuel mixture and engine power settings. The pilot returned to the airport, and, in the traffic pattern, the engine began to run rough, followed by a total loss of power. The pilot subsequently landed in an open field about 150 feet short of the runway threshold. A postaccident examination of the fuel system and a test run of the engine revealed no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. The reason for the reported loss of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power for undetermined reasons, because postaccident examination of the engine and fuel system did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16LA049
- Event ID
- 20160108X45723
- Case number
- WPR16LA049
- 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: 629892a80cf5c33f13b2b1704339c3f2d39ea7b19e897a00ce161b4ec03f679a; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:04:53.308Z.