The pilot and a passenger had just landed the Cessna 140 on the runway at the airport in Olustee, Oklahoma, and come to a full stop.
The pilot then attempted a takeoff from the middle of the 2,000-foot runway, with only about 1,000 feet remaining.
During the takeoff roll and near the end of the runway, he felt the wind suddenly shift from the left rear. He attempted to get the airplane airborne before the runway ended, but was unsuccessful.
He was unable to stop the airplane as it continued off the end of the runway and into a fence. The airplane nosed over into a field and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and empennage.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions with the airplane and that he should have utilized the entire runway for the takeoff.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s decision to attempt a takeoff from the middle of the runway in shifting wind conditions, which resulted in an aborted takeoff and runway excursion.
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This August 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
I often do intersection takeoffs. Just have to be ahead of ambient conditions and the plane.
I go back to on of my first lessons; my instructor always said use all the available runway even if you have to taxi a bit longer and this was at an airport with a 10,001 foot runway. It clicked in when when I started going to smaller airports. Taxing back would have saved this person and airplane a lot of trouble.
The issue if I may and probably one reason the pilot chose to utilize only half of the runway is at the end of the “2,000” foot runway are weeds (not the thin 1 here and 1 there kind/we are talking lawnmower sized batches of weeds all up and down the southern side of the runway) and tall grass, cracks and hell only half of the numbers are visible. There is even a section of runway where grass is growing out of the side of the runway 1 foot into the runway for about 30 feet or so. I do not blame this person for choosing the “better part of the runway” for takeoff. Had he used all available runway he might of been killed as grass literally can be seen growing 3-4 feet right out of the runway. I am not a pilot so I don’t pretend to know what a plane can and can not handle, but I would venture to guess grass and weeds with quite thick stock growing that high and that thick would have serious implications with the wind we get here and with the size of the aircraft that this man was flying. it may have jolted him enough to send him into some sort of sommersaulting that could have cost him his life. My guess living in this town….. he chose right on this one (between the two choices he could have made). The town reports 21 flights leave this airport a week and that 3 airplanes are stored here… No doubt for income or grants or something from the State and that is a damn lie. There isn’t 21 flights out of here since I moved here in 2018 and there sure as hell arent no damn 3 planes.