Ward SIDEWINDER N4119Q

Summary

On 21 June 2000 at about 21:00 local time, a Ward SIDEWINDER registered N4119Q was involved in an accident near Madera, California, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

21 June 2000 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Madera, California, United States

Coordinates

36.9096, -120.1902

Aircraft

Ward SIDEWINDER

Registration

N4119Q

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Red Bluff → Fresno

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX00LA238

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate short field landing procedure and his delayed decision to proceed to an alternate destination, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a subsequent hard landing during the emergency descent.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

This was a cross-country flight from Oregon to California with two en route stops planned to refuel. The flight departed at 0730, with refueling stops along the way. A departure time of 1120 was made from the second airport. The pilot indicated that the airplane had a fuel capacity of 20 gallons and a burn rate of 8 gallons per hour, approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours of flight, and was not equipped with flaps. After arrival at the destination airport, at 1320, he made three attempts to land. Due to winds and a high temperature he was unable to land. On all three attempts, he landed approximately halfway down the runway, and did not feel there was enough room to safely come to a stop. He departed the airport at 1345 to attempt a landing at an airport approximately 20 nmi from his current position; passing by an airport 5 miles from his current location because he did not have a transponder onboard the airplane and did not want to enter Class C airspace without it. Approximately 6 miles from the airport the engine quit, and the pilot started looking for a place to make an emergency landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.