N38076

On April 16, 1993, at about 1915 central daylight time (cdt), N38076; a Beech 35 aircraft, stalled on takeoff, settled back to the runway and ran off the runway into a ditch. The pilot was not injured and the aircraft was substantially damaged. The business flight was not on a flight plan with intended destination of El Reno, Oklahoma.

In effort to prevent rock chip damage to the propeller, the commercial pilot elected to use only the right one-third of the sod and gravel runway at a private airstrip in Bennington, Kansas, to execute a soft field takeoff. (Runway 18: 1/3 sod, 1/3 gravel, 1/3 sod.)

The pilot initially reported to the FAA a stall during takeoff, and a subsequent loss of directional control. The aircraft "veered to right, and went through ditch and came to stop on bank." Later, in his Pilot Accident Report, the pilot reported, " That night after wife and I settled down, we both agreed that we were not airborne... There were soft spots on the shoulder of the runway due to prior snow and rain. Soft spots combined with the slope toward the ditch, with south-eat wind, and differential rolling resistance, right, main tire on sod and left main tire on gravel caused aircraft to veer right."

Impact with the terrain caused substantial damage to the aircraft. The propeller, cowling, landing gear, left wing tip, skin, and engine mounts were damaged. However, the pilot and passenger were uninjured.

No flight plan was filed for this 14 CFR 91 flight operating in visual meteorological conditions.