GAA16CA227 · American Champion Aircraft 8GCBC
Parker GCBC American Champion Aircraft 8GCBC · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Hale County Airport (PVW) to Clovis Municipal Airport (CVN)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA227
- 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
American Champion Aircraft 8GCBC
- Aircraft type
- American Champion 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
- N326JH
- Operator
- Parker GCBC
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hale County Airport (PVW), Plainview, TXTo Clovis Municipal Airport (CVN), Clovis, NM
- Aircraft age
- About 8 years (built 2008)
- 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 › 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 of the tailwheel equipped airplane reported that during the takeoff roll in gusty wind conditions, the airplane encountered a strong wind gust. He further reported that shortly after takeoff, the right wing dropped, followed by the left wing; and the left wing impacted the ground.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing.
According to the pilot there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
A review of recorded data from the automated weather observation station located on the airport revealed that, at the time of the accident, conditions were wind 260 degrees at 29 knots, wind gust 40 knots. The airplane was departing on runway 22.
The pilot attempted to takeoff with about an 18 knot right crosswind component.
According to the airplane manufacture the maximum demonstrated crosswind component for takeoff and landing is 15 knots.
The FAA Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3A (2004) discusses operations in crosswind conditions and states in part:
Takeoffs and landings in certain crosswind conditions are inadvisable or even dangerous. If the crosswind is great enough to warrant an extreme drift correction, a hazardous landing condition may result. Therefore, the takeoff and landing capabilities with respect to the reported surface wind conditions and the available landing directions must be considered.
It is imperative that pilots determine the maximum crosswind component of each airplane they fly, and avoid operations in wind conditions that exceed the capability of the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during gusty wind conditions. Contributing to the outcome was the pilot's exceedance of the maximum crosswind component during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA227
- Event ID
- 20160510X64921
- Case number
- GAA16CA227
- 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: 60ece9f20cbf4a049a81b6c1de44912e55094fa73b386bf655422d787f6b298c; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:22:37.052Z.