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Atlas / NTSB / WPR22LA105

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event WPR22LA105

2022-02-19 Buckeye, Arizona, United States Airport · BXK None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N242K

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

RANS S-7 COURIER

Year of manufacture

2001 · 21 years old at event

Engine

BOMBARDIER ROTAX (ALL)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20011212

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A2384E

Registrant of record

SHELTON JOSEPH G

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack while on final approach to land which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and hard landing.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the tailwheel equipped experimental airplane reported that, he mistook a parking lot for what he thought was an ultralight/light sport runway. While on final approach he observed power lines that obstructed the approach. He pulled up to avoid the power lines; however, he did not add engine power and the airplane stalled, landed hard and veered to the right where it struck a water drum and came to rest inverted. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and the vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane 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).

  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Not attained/maintained
  • Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Not attained/maintained

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2022_WPR22LA105.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 ↗