ERA19LA232 · Vans RV7 A
Vans RV7 A · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Ocean City Municipal Airport (OXB) to Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19LA232
- 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
Vans RV7 A
- Aircraft type
- Vans RV7
- 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
- N849GS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ocean City Municipal Airport (OXB), Ocean CIty, MDTo Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF), Manassas, VA
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2004)
- 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 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
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 reported that, during takeoff, the airplane was about 500 ft above ground level when the engine lost partial power. The pilot verified that the throttle, mixture, and propeller were in the full forward position and chose to stay in the airport traffic pattern and land on the runway. The pilot noted that, during short final on approach, the airplane was "high and fast," but he still wanted to land on the runway to avoid landing in the water beyond the runway. The airplane landed hard, continued into the grass, and then nosed over and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the rudder.
A postaccident engine examination was conducted. The propeller governor control arm was found disconnected from the propeller governor, and the control arm locking bolt was missing. In addition, the secondary control arm/spacer and spring were not located. No other anomalies were noted with the engine.
The propeller governor control arm was reattached (without the missing parts), and fuel was plumbed into the engine; the engine started and ran smoothly. The propeller lever was operated with no anomalies noted. Then, the governor control arm was positioned in the low pitch, high rpm position to simulate takeoff conditions, and the governor control arm was disconnected. The engine was restarted and the throttle was advanced, but the engine rpm would not rise above 1,400 at maximum power, which was similar to the accident flight data downloaded from the engine information system on board the airplane. After the engine was shut down, examination of the governor control revealed that it had vibrated/turned to a high pitch, low rpm setting. It is likely that the absence of the control arm locking bolt that secured the propeller governor control arm to the propeller governor resulted in the control arm separating from the governor and then the governor control vibrating/rotating into a high pitch, low rpm setting, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power. The investigation could not determine if the bolt was not installed during the engine overhaul 28.5 flight hours before the accident or if the bolt backed out of the propeller control arm.
Probable cause
The disconnection of the propeller governor control arm from the propeller governor due to a missing attachment bolt, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power during takeoff when the governor control vibrated to a high pitch, low rpm setting.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19LA232
- Event ID
- 20190719X40133
- Case number
- ERA19LA232
- 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: 4b289e47ea3b1ecd4d601c3dba96caa84a3bbf0a99e586cdb578862b99371dbc; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:27:22.447Z.