GAA16CA485 · Dormaier Monte R BABY GREAT LAKES
Dormaier Monte R BABY GREAT LAKES · Accident: runway excursion during takeoff
From Lost River Airport (W12) to Lost River Airport (W12)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA485
- 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
Dormaier Monte R BABY GREAT LAKES
- Aircraft type
- Dormaier Monte BABY GREAT LAKES
- 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
- N110MD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lost River Airport (W12), Mazama, WATo Lost River Airport (W12), Mazama, WA
- Aircraft age
- About 36 years (built 1980)
- 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
- Runway excursion
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Pole; Tree(s)
- 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 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Safety Inspector that responded to the accident site reported that the pilot of the experimental, amateur built, tailwheel landing gear-equipped bi-plane reported to the inspector, that during the takeoff roll the bi-plane drifted off the left side of the turf and gravel runway. The pilot reported that after he had completed his engine run-up and all indications were normal, he lightly applied power and began his takeoff roll from a concrete pad at the approach end of the runway. He reported to the inspector that the bi-plane began to drift to the left and he did not feel as though he had rudder authority, so he added more power with the intent to increase the airflow over the rudder, but the torque from the added power exacerbated the loss of control. The bi-plane drifted further left, exited the runway, and struck a post that supported a satellite dish and subsequently struck a tree. The bi-plane sustained substantial damage to the four wings and the fuselage. The pilot reported to the inspector that in hindsight it would have been better to abort the takeoff.
The FAA Inspector reported that during the airplane examination he did not find any evidence of aircraft system or component failure prior to the impact.
The NTSB Investigator-in-charge attempted to contact the pilot on multiple occasions to no avail. The pilot did not submit the NTSB Form 6120.1.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll, which resulted in a runway excursion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA485
- Event ID
- 20160914X31028
- Case number
- GAA16CA485
- 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: bf98df3c925211aaa7f60aaa8b458fb16fb7fb0594bd0426ce9b1a6f63e9d39d; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:16:03.804Z.