N88428

HISTORY OF FLIGHT On August 18, 1996, at 1930 eastern daylight time, a Bellanca, 8KCAB, N88428, impacted the ground shortly after takeoff from My Way Airport, in Waterford, Ohio. The private pilot/owner was not injured, the passenger was seriously injured and the airplane sustained substantial damage. No flight plan had been filed and visual meteorological conditions existed at the time of the accident. The local flight was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.

The passenger stated that the pilot approached her and asked if she would like a ride in his airplane. A witness near the runway watching the takeoff stated that the airplane started to climb very quickly and then began what the witness thought was a left turn in an attempt to get back to the airstrip. The witness stated that when the airplane went down below a hill, he could hear the engine running and then the noise of the crash. The witness stated that the airplane got approximately 100 feet off the ground.

When the pilot was interviewed by the State Highway Patrol shortly after the accident, he stated that "after I got off the end of the runway, I lost power. The engine wasn't pulling, I made the decision I could return to the runway." When asked by the State Highway Patrol how high he got above the ground, the pilot answered, "I'd say 600 feet".

The FAA Inspector asked the passenger if there was anything unusual about the airplane's attitude when they departed the runway and the passenger replied that it "seemed as if they went straight up, the aircraft turned left and then straight down." The passenger stated that one of the things that stuck in her mind was that when they took off, the control stick, which she had never flown in an airplane with one before, was pulled all the way back. The passenger stated that her husband commented that it looked like "we did a hammerhead stall" when we took off. The passenger stated that she did not hear any strange noises and that the airplane sounded normal.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION On the pilot/operator aircraft accident report, the private pilot wrote that he had a total of 700 hours of flight time, with 100 in this make and model. The pilot did not fill in the amount of time he has flown in the last 24 hours, 30 days and 90 days. The last FAA medical certificate issued to the private pilot was a third class medical dated 04/24/89.

WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATION The FAA Inspector inspected the wreckage and found no anomalies with the airframe or engine. A fuel sample was taken from the wreckage and sent to the Aerospace Fuels Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

Photographs of the wreckage and the ground scar show that the airplane impacted the ground in a relatively flat attitude with a high rate of vertical velocity, collapsing the fixed main landing gear. The short ground scar near the wreckage had deep groves cut into the dirt of the surrounding rough grass. Both tips of the propeller blade were bent and twisted aft.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The results from the test on the fuel taken from the wreckage done at the Aerospace Fuels Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB indicate that the fuel was automotive gasoline. The airplane logbooks reviewed did not show that the airplane was approved for automotive gasoline. The pilot/owner indicated that he did not know how his airplane was fueled with the automotive fuel.