CEN22LA413 · Piper PA32RT 300T
Piper PA32RT 300T · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From Bulverde Airpark (1T8) to Dallas Love Field (KDAL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN22LA413
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Piper PA32RT 300T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N31981
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bulverde Airpark (1T8), Bulverde, TXTo Dallas Love Field (KDAL), Dallas, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1978)
- 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 power plant
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 the airplane did not accelerate as usual during the takeoff roll. To avoid obstacles at the end of the runway, the pilot continued the takeoff. The airplane cleared powerlines, trees, and a school, but was nearing a stall so the pilot decided to make a forced landing in a field. During the landing the airplane collided with a tree, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage. Examination of the engine found excessive carbon deposits around the No. 4 cylinder exhaust valve. A large amount of carbon buildup was found on the rocker arm, rocker shaft, and valve spring. The rotator cap also had carbon deposits and exhibited a groove wear pattern consistent with a lack of cap rotation. The exhaust valve guide had excessive wobble and movement within the guide. The No. 5 exhaust valve also displayed signatures of carbon buildup but not to the same extent as the No. 4. No other anomalies were detected with the engine or airframe. The loss of engine power was likely due to at least one stuck exhaust valve.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to excessive carbon deposits that resulted in one or more stuck exhaust valves.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN22LA413
- Event ID
- 20220912105901
- Case number
- CEN22LA413
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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, cause areas. 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: ba76b42cd9c1d90002b97ffb2debffea2355d0f64f20a924e42ea8463948f420; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:57:59.802Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. City misspelled; KDAL is Dallas Love Field at Dallas, TX.