WPR17LA015 · Ryan W Gross Arion Lighting
Ryan W Gross Arion Lighting · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Falcon Field (FFZ) to Henderson Executive Airport (HND)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR17LA015
- 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
Ryan W Gross Arion Lighting
- Aircraft type
- Ryan W Gross ARION LIGHTING
- 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
- N235SC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Falcon Field (FFZ), Mesa, AZTo Henderson Executive Airport (HND), Henderson, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 7 years (built 2009)
- 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
- 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 › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 280-hour student pilot had just purchased the experimental, light sport airplane in which he had no experience or training. The pilot declined a suggestion from a mechanic who assisted with the sale to perform a familiarization flight with another pilot who had operational experience with the airplane. The mechanic stated that the pilot started the engine to depart on the flight home; however, he experienced problems taxiing, shut down the engine, and stated that the nosewheel steering was not working. The mechanic explained that the airplane was steered by differential braking and again suggested that the pilot conduct a familiarization flight. The pilot again declined, restarted the engine, and taxied the airplane to the runway for takeoff. The pilot stated that, just after rotation, the engine surged and the left wing subsequently dropped and impacted terrain.
The mechanic watched the airplane take off and stated that the engine sounded "strong and even" and that the airplane became airborne in a relatively flat attitude. He heard several reductions and increases in engine power as the airplane sank, climbed, rolled, and yawed until the left wing impacted the ground off the left side of runway.
A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no mechanical anomalies with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that the pilot failed to maintain airplane control during the takeoff and initial climb and that his lack of experience in the accident airplane and his refusal to obtain familiarization training before attempting to fly it directly resulted in his failure to maintain control.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control during takeoff/initial climb due to his inexperience in the airplane make and model and his refusal to obtain training in the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR17LA015
- Event ID
- 20161101X12233
- Case number
- WPR17LA015
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2016-10-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 77a6e4aa6ece69c1b5bf40300fbef6b534fde2a539ade945dffa452454c17413; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:48:09.620Z.