What happened
The pilot received a pre-flight weather briefing from a Flight Service Station. The briefing was comprehensive but lacked an open weather radar set. The pilot was advised of a line of thunderstorms to the southwest moving east at 20 knots, along with a pilot report regarding a storm 20 miles south of Wichita Falls. Witnesses observed the aircraft take off downwind and struggle to gain altitude before making an abrupt right turn into low clouds. A witness later saw the aircraft emerge from the clouds and crash approximately 1.5 miles southeast of the airport. The impact was characterized by a steep left wing-down, slightly nose-low attitude. Just before takeoff, witnesses reported heavy rain, small hail, lightning, and thunder. Evidence suggested the pilot was rushing to depart before a clearance void time of 0900 CST, taking off about eight minutes prior.
The investigation
Examination of the aircraft revealed no pre-impact part failures or malfunctions. Technical specifications indicated that the attitude indicator required a three-minute spin-up time to achieve rated performance. Given the short duration between takeoff and impact, the instrument may not have been fully operational.
Findings
The pilot departed into deteriorating weather conditions with limited radar support. The combination of heavy precipitation, low ceilings, and potential instrument unreliability due to insufficient spin-up time contributed to the loss of control. The urgency to depart before a void time likely pressured the decision to fly into known thunderstorms.