What happened
A private pilot with 256 hours of flight experience and one passenger were departing from a private, 1,200-foot-long grass airstrip in a two-seat, single-engine airplane. During the takeoff roll, the aircraft collided with brush measuring between 10 and 14 feet in height. After the collision, the aircraft flew across a 14-foot-wide drainage ditch located past the end of the runway and subsequently landed in an open field, where it nosed over. The two occupants were not injured.
The investigation
An inspection of the aircraft by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector found that the throttle was in the idle position and both propeller blades were bent aft. Environmental and operational factors noted during the investigation included an outside air temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit and a calculated density altitude of approximately 2,296 feet. Additionally, both occupants weighed more than 200 pounds. The aircraft, which was manufactured in 1947, lacked published takeoff performance data from the manufacturer.