GAA17CA488 · Charles D Walker WALKER CURTISS JN4D
Charles D Walker WALKER CURTISS JN4D · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG) to Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA488
- 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
Charles D Walker WALKER CURTISS JN4D
- Aircraft type
- Charles D Walker WALKER CURTISS JN4D
- 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
- N8262
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG), Bowling Green, KYTo Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG), Bowling Green, KY
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2013)
- 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
- 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
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the experimental, amateur-built biplane reported that, following a normal initial climb, about 100 ft above the ground, the biplane started an uncommanded left turn, followed by a descent. He added that it became apparent that the flightpath was into the tree line, and he "attempted to climb to possibly maintain at least an altitude to clear the trees, but to no avail, nearly stalling." Subsequently, the biplane impacted the trees.
The biplane sustained substantial damage to the wings and fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the biplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot added that the biplane is "not very stable once in a flying configuration, any air mass (gusts) change can disturb the balance and result in self-induced turns, climbs and descents. These movements have to be countered immediately because of the relative size (small) of control surfaces (rudder, ailerons). And corrections are slow, possibly resulting in loss of altitude. Pilots expect these upsets and become alert for them."
The automated weather observation system on the accident airport reported, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 360° at 5 knots. The pilot was departing from runway 03. The calculated density altitude was 1,897 ft.
Probable cause
The pilot’s exceedance of the biplane’s critical angle of attack during initial climb, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA488
- Event ID
- 20170813X81509
- Case number
- GAA17CA488
- 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. 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: 965b867270c54e44707aa97cecf425d0d7b913ba48e6d2bbf6872e9e48f79802; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:41:55.061Z.