The student pilot reported that after making a forced landing that resulted from fuel exhaustion, he put five gallons of fuel on board and prepared to fly the Globe GC1A back to the airport.
During the subsequent takeoff on a road near Ottawa, Kansas, as the airplane was near takeoff speed, a car entered the intersection in front of him.
The student pilot pulled back on the flight controls, which put the airplane in an attitude where it exceeded its critical angle of attack. The plane stalled, nosed over, and hit the ground, coming to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and the forward fuselage. The student pilot sustained minor injuries in the crash.
According to FAA officials, the student pilot’s certificate was issued in October 2016 and he had not received any dual instruction for several years.
Probable Cause: The student pilot’s failure to attain proper pitch attitude of the airplane causing it to exceed its critical angle of attack, enter an aerodynamic stall, and subsequently impact terrain, and his poor decision making and lack of experience that led him to attempt the takeoff from the road.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This November 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.
A Globe Swift? Tricky little airplane for a student pilot, but whatever. But running out of fuel as a student pilot? Gee, you’d think he’d have a few hundred hours under his belt before doing stupid stuff like that!
I have a question. Can a person who flies an aircraft without a valid certificate or medical get insurance for the aircraft ?
Anyone can buy and own an aircraft, but can it be insured ?
Every insurance policy I have ever seen requires a valid medical to be in effect. So you can buy the insurance without a medical, but they won’t pay a claim if the PIC didn’t have a valid medical in effect at the time of the accident.
Thousands of Sport Pilots have insurance on their planes but no medical.
Student pilot certificates should have an expiration date just as medical certificates and pilot biannuals. I don’t know that this would completely solve the issue of pilots flying on student certificates for years but it is a start.
What you describe used to be the case: Your medical certificate was also your Student Pilot certificate. So, when your medical expired, so did your student pilot certificate. If memory serves, it was FAA form 8420-2 and it said, right at the top, “Medical Certificate ____ Class and Student Pilot Certificate”.
However, as you rightly acknowledge, folks have been exceeding the limits of student certificates since (I suspect) very shortly after the very first student pilot certificate was issued, whenever that was. And, really, that isn’t any different than the countless “real” pilots exceeding the limits of whatever certificate they happen to hold. Oh, and let’s not forget the folks who fly entirely without any pilot certificate (valid or otherwise) or even without any formal flight training.
Now, I’m not condoning any of those practices in any way, mind you. But, at the end of the day, no law or regulation has ever stopped anyone from doing anything. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need anyone to enforce them. The people that are willing to follow the rules will do so. Those that are not, won’t. So, all we can really hope for is, when someone doesn’t follow the rules (or even when they do so and still manage to foul things up), they don’t hurt anyone (or, at least, anyone other than themselves). Thankfully, that appears to be mostly the case here and, really, I’m not sure this particular dumb pilot trick looks all that different from any number of other dumb pilot tricks executed by more qualified, err, I mean certified, pilots!
Well said.
Spot on CF.
THAT is well said–the part about “no law or regulation has ever stopped anyone….” etc. I never thought of that, as I joked, often, “THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAW!” But they really don’t stop everyone, do they, the laws? I had a friend who owned a restaurant, locked it up at night, said “Locks are for honest people.” Now I get it.