N87083Bellanca 7ECA · 1974

On July 4, 2016, about 1400 central daylight time, a Bellanca 7ECA airplane, N87083, was substantially damaged when it hit a ditch during an aborted takeoff and runway excursion at the Barham Airport (01LA), Oak Ridge, Louisiana. The private pilot was not injured. The airplane was owned by Flying Tigers Aviation and operated by a private individual under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) flight plan had been filed for the flight. The personal flight had departed Vicksburg Municipal Airport (VKS), Vicksburg, Mississippi, about 1330, and was en route to Morehouse Memorial Airport (BQP), Bastrop, Louisiana.

During the cross-country flight, the pilot landed on the turf airstrip at 01LA. The pilot stated that the landing was fine and he repositioned the airplane to depart to the west (runway 27, 2,000 feet by 60 feet, turf). He wrote that he did not feel that the airplane was at the speed it should be when it was 3/4 of the way down the runway so he decided to abort the takeoff. When he applied the brakes and full aft elevator/control stick input, the airplane ballooned. Once it had settled back down, he was unable to stop the airplane before it overran the end of the runway.

The airplane hit a ditch just beyond the end of the runway, bounced up, hit a second ditch, and nosed over, coming to rest inverted in the second ditch. The left wing separated from the airplane and the fuselage and empennage were substantially damaged. The pilot stated that there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane at the time of the accident.

The recorded aviation weather information for BQP, located 9 miles northwest of 01LA, taken at 1415, reported wind from 200 degrees at 8 knots, temperature 81 degrees Fahrenheit (F), dew point temperature 75 degrees F, and an altimeter setting of 29.98 inches. Calculations of relevant data indicated the density altitude was 1,512 feet.