N6298

On August 27, 2006, approximately 1400 Pacific daylight time, a Curtiss Wright Travel Air C-4000, N6298, impacted a house and two automobiles during the initial climb out after taking off from Crow-Mag Airstrip, Elmira, Oregon. The pilot received serious injuries, his passenger received fatal injuries, and the aircraft, which is owned and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal pleasure flight, which was departing for Florence, Oregon, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed, and there was no report of an ELT activation.

According to witnesses, the aircraft, which was taking off to the north, lifted off in about 600 to 800 feet, and initially climbed straight ahead. It then started drifting to the right, and appeared to increase its pitch angle as it neared some nearby trees. Soon thereafter, the nose of the aircraft dropped, it rolled to the left, and then descended into the roof of a house. After the wing of the aircraft hit the house, it cartwheeled into the parked automobiles.

According to the pilot, at the time of the takeoff, the winds were variable in direction and blowing between five and ten knots. The pilot said that after talking with other pilots more familiar with the field then him, he decided to take off to the north. He said that during the takeoff roll, lift off, and initial climb, the aircraft appeared to perform normally, but as he reached tree-top level, the wind shifted to a tailwind, and the aircraft stopped climbing and began to sink. He said that the aircraft drifted toward the right side of the 60-foot wide runway, and this resulted in him having to turn twice to avoid trees growing near the runway. During the second turn, the airspeed of the aircraft slowed, it stalled, rolled to the left, and descended into the house.

The pilot stated that he felt the engine was running fine, and that there was no problem with the flight controls. In addition, another pilot, that owns and flies an aircraft with a similar engine, and who was standing near the runway at the time of the takeoff, said that the engine sounded like it was operating normally.

During the investigation it was determined that when the pilot landed at Crow-Mag Airstrip earlier in the day, to participate in an informal gathering of classic aircraft, he inadvertently departed the side of the runway and allowed the lower right wing of the aircraft to come in contact with a number of steel rods that where sticking out of the ground. During that sequence of events, the cloth covering on the bottom of the right wing was ripped/torn in several places. While the pilot was at the gathering, non-approved "repairs" were made to those tears (covered by duct tape), but according to the FAA Inspector who viewed the aircraft at the scene, there was no clear evidence that any of those "repairs" had failed, or that the function of the airfoil had been degraded.