Grumman Acft Eng Cor-Schweizer G-164B accident near Pleasant Grove, California, June 25, 2024

The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record

The operator hired the pilot to reposition the turbopropeller-engine equipped airplane from the seller’s private airstrip to the job location. Although the pilot had experience flying reciprocating engine-equipped models of the airplane, he did not have any previous experience flying the turbopropeller-engine equipped model until he started preparing for the repositioning flight. His preparations included attending ground training and making four familiarization flights (about 2.5 hours total) in the accident airplane with progressively increased loading but at weights less than that of the loading for the accident flight. For the accident flight, the pilot loaded the airplane to about 6,011 lbs, which was below the Civil Aeronautics Manual (CAM) Part 8 operational gross weight of 6,075 lbs listed in an exemplar Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH) for the airplane model. The POH did not list performance data for the turbopropeller engine or provide performance charts for calculating required runway distances. No performance charts for the turbo-propeller equipped Ag Cat were available to the pilot; however, the ground/flight instructor was confident that the airplane could take off from the 2,100 ft asphalt runway. The pilot’s pretakeoff checks revealed normal operation of the engine. During the takeoff roll, the airplane accelerated at a significantly lower rate than during the pilot’s previous flights in it. Once the tailwheel came up, the pilot saw that most of the runway had been used. The pilot elected to continue the takeoff and pulled back on the control stick to climb. The airplane climbed slowly but struck a gate and then a pickup truck before impacting terrain, which substantially damage the fuselage, wings, and empennage. Any advantage to braking, rather than electing to takeoff, could not be determined due to the lack of performance charts. Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no mechanical malfunction or anomaly that would have precluded normal operation. An anomaly identified in the fuel control bellows would not have reduced engine power.

The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.

Other NTSB records under N6793K the same tail number, which may have belonged to a different aircraft at the time