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Atlas / NTSB / DFW06CA063

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DFW06CA063

2006-01-30 Gail, Texas, United States Airport · SWW None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N744

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-18-150

Year of manufacture

1982 · 24 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19980925

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AA0165

Registrant of record

UNITED STATES DEPT OF AGRICULTURE AVIATION

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed resulting in an inadvertent stall/mush.

Factual narrative

The single-engine tailwheel-equipped airplane was performing a predator control flight while on a public use mission for a government agency. The 5,843-hour commercial pilot reported that the flight profile of the flight required operation at low altitude. The pilot reported that about an hour and fifty minutes into the flight, the airplane settled into a mesquite tree thicket while maneuvering. The pilot was able to add full power, arrest the descent, and eventually fly out of the thicket. The pilot found an open pasture about 1/2 mile from the location of the mishap, and landed to survey the damage to the airplane. The pilot found structural damage had incurred to the tail section of the airplane. The single-engine tailwheel-equipped airplane was performing a predator control flight while on a public use mission for a government agency. The 5,843-hour commercial pilot reported that the flight profile of the flight required operation at low altitude. The pilot reported that about an hour and fifty minutes into the flight, the airplane settled into a mesquite tree thicket while maneuvering. The pilot was able to add full power, arrest the descent, and eventually fly out of the thicket. The pilot found an open pasture about 1/2 mile from the location of the mishap, and landed to survey the damage to the airplane. The pilot found structural damage had occurred to the tail section of the airplane. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2006_DFW06CA063.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗