Aircraft Mfg & Dev Co (Amd) CH 2000 N363AM

Summary

On 15 May 2007 at about 20:15 local time, a Aircraft Mfg & Dev Co (Amd) CH 2000 registered N363AM was involved in an accident near Merced, 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

15 May 2007 at 20:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Merced, California, United States

Nearest airport

Merced Municipal Airport (MCE)

Coordinates

37.2847, -120.5139

Aircraft

Aircraft Mfg & Dev Co (Amd) CH 2000

Registration

N363AM

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Atwater → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA07CA130

Nobody was injured.

The student pilot's inadvertent stall/mush during a simulated power loss after takeoff and the flight instructor's delayed remedial action, which resulted in a hard landing. A contributing factor was the flight instructor's lack of familiarity with the make/model of aircraft.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight instructor said the instructional flight was to prepare the student for his stage two check, which was to be followed by his first solo flight. The student had received 41.2 hours of instruction, with 5.4 hours in this make/model aircraft. The flight instructor had planned for a simulated engine failure after takeoff; it was the flight instructor's first practice simulated engine failure after takeoff in this make/model aircraft. He pulled the throttle to idle, but the student held the yoke in the climb attitude as opposed to nosing the airplane down for best glide speed. The flight instructor said that he realized the airspeed was low and the aircraft was in a high rate of descent, but his remedial attempts did not prevent a hard landing. The airplane's firewall was wrinkled, and the empennage and horizontal stabilizer were bent.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.