Pilot Debrief

Cessna 150L near Mesa, AZ — 2008-03-18

Final reportLAX08LA077
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Date
2008-03-18
Location
Mesa, AZ, USA
Airport
FFZ
Aircraft
Cessna 150L
Registration
N19521
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
Minor
Fatalities
0

Probable cause

A partial loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.

NTSB narrative

The engine lost partial power during the initial take off climb. The certified flight instructor (CFI) applied full carburetor heat and full rich mixture. The airplane did not produce enough power to maintain level flight, and the CFI landed the airplane straight ahead, colliding with trees. An inspection revealed a rubber-like material in the crankcase split line. The mixture control bottomed out before reaching the full idle stop. The spark plugs had dark sooty deposits, and the cylinder heads, piston tops, and valves all had slightly above-normal deposits. The engine ran without anomalies at different ranges of power during postaccident testing. The number one bottom spark plug, which was connected to the left magneto, did not produce a spark when the propeller was rotated by hand. The spark plug was dark and coated in oil. A compression test disclosed that the number four cylinder compression ring gaps were in the same location on the piston, causing blow-by and pressurization of the crankcase. There were also several cylinder base studs that were of an improper size.

NTSB coding

View NTSB final report

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