What happened
On 24 April 2014, a Cessna 175B Skylark, registration G-ARML, was attempting to depart from a private grass airstrip in Slinfold, West Sussex. The flight was a private operation involving one pilot and two passengers. During the takeoff roll on Runway 22, the pilot configured the aircraft with 20 degrees of flaps for a short-field departure. While the initial roll proceeded normally, the aircraft's acceleration ceased as it approached 45 knots.
As the pilot attempted to maintain airspeed, the aircraft adopted a nose-up attitude without gaining speed, eventually triggering the stall warning. Recognizing the degraded performance, the pilot aborted the takeoff by closing the throttle and applying maximum braking. Despite these efforts, the aircraft crossed the end of the runway and entered a ditch at approximately 5 knots. The impact caused the nose landing gear to detach backwards and resulted in the propeller striking the ground. There were no injuries to the occupants, though the aircraft sustained significant damage to the engine, firewall, fuselage skin, cowling, and propeller.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the sudden loss of engine performance during the takeoff roll. The pilot noted that while carburetor heat had been applied during pre-takeoff power checks, approximately five minutes had passed between that check and the actual departure attempt. The pilot suggested that carburettor icing might have contributed to the lack of acceleration, though no definitive cause for the performance loss was established.