NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA17CA108
Registry · N5897R
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
VAN'S AIRCRAFT RV7A
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A79AB4
Registrant of record
LARSON ROGER H
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s inadvertent application of the autopilot during short final, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and hard landing.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that during his second flight, following the installation of a new autopilot, he noticed on short final that the mixture was set too lean. He further reported that "with a gloved hand" he pushed the mixture in to a richer setting; and accidently turned on the autopilot, which was located directly above the mixture control. The autopilot was set to navigation mode, heading mode, and altitude mode from a previous flight. The pilot reported that he was "fighting the auto pilot" and the airplane aerodynamically stalled, resulting in a hard landing. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall. The pilot reported there were no pre-accident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that, during his second flight, following the installation of a new autopilot, he noticed on short final that the mixture was set too lean. He added that, "with a gloved hand," he pushed the mixture in to a richer setting and accidently turned on the autopilot, which was located directly above the mixture control. The autopilot was set to navigation mode, heading mode, and altitude mode from a previous flight. The pilot reported that he was "fighting the auto pilot" and that the airplane aerodynamically stalled, which resulted in a hard landing. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Capability exceeded - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Auto flight system-Autopilot system-Unintentional use/operation - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2017_GAA17CA108.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, autopilot). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
ROSflight 2.0: Lean ROS 2-Based Autopilot for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
ROSflight is a lean, open-source autopilot ecosystem for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Designed by researchers for researchers, it is built to lower the barrier to entry to UAV research and acceler…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
ROSplane 2.0: A Fixed-Wing Autopilot for Research
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research requires the integration of cutting-edge technology into existing autopilot frameworks.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
A Data-Driven Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft Based on Model Predictive Control
Autopilots for fixed-wing aircraft are typically designed based on linearized aerodynamic models consisting of stability and control derivatives obtained from wind-tunnel testing.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Automating Bird Diverter Installation through Multi-Aerial Robots and Signal Temporal Logic Specifications
This paper tackles the task assignment and trajectory generation problem for bird diverter installation using a fleet of multi-rotors.
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Variation of Critical Crystallization Pressure for the Formation of Square Ice in Graphene Nanocapillaries
Two-dimensional square ice in graphene nanocapillaries at room temperature is a fascinating phenomenon and has been confirmed experimentally.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗