NTSB Factual Report

On August 29, 2017, about 0639 mountain standard time, a Beechcraft M35, N339Z, was substantially damaged during a forced landing near Lake Havasu City Airport (HII), Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The private pilot/owner received minor injuries. The personal flight was conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed.

According to the pilot, he based the airplane in a hangar at Hemet-Ryan Airport (HMT) Hemet, California, and he makes the trip between HMT and HII regularly. The airplane was equipped with six fuel tanks (two each main, auxiliary, and tip). The pilot did not recall his exact departure fuel from HMT, but he conducted the takeoff and climbout, as he always did, on the left main tank. Once at his cruise altitude of 7,500', he switched to the auxiliary tanks, and later, to the right main tank. While in cruise, he also turned on the two pumps to transfer fuel out of the tip tanks. He began his letdown for HII about 30 miles out, and when he had the airport in sight, as was his habit, he switched the fuel selector to the left main tank for the landing. The engine stopped producing power but continued to windmill. The pilot selected the landing gear down, advanced the mixture and propeller controls, and verified that the ignition switch was set to the 'BOTH' position. The engine continued to windmill, but did not start.

The pilot determined that he would not make the runway, and selected an open desert area as his landing location. He switched to the right main fuel tank, but there was no change in the engine; it continued to windmill only. A short time later, the pilot switched back to the left main tank, again to no avail. While on short final to his selected off-airport site, the pilot recognized that the airplane would strike a "gully" that was approximately perpendicular to his direction of travel; he intentionally pulled up/back to overfly the gully, with the knowledge that the airplane would likely stall as a result. The airplane overflew the gully, and came down hard on the nose landing gear. The nose landing gear collapsed, but the airplane slid to an upright stop. The pilot shut down the airplane and exited on his own. First responders arrived on scene shortly thereafter, and the airplane was recovered to a secure facility later that day. The recovery personnel reported that none of the fuel tanks were breached, and that the airplane had about 43 gallons of fuel on board, all of which was contained in the two main tanks. The airplane was retained for detailed examination at a later date.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records indicated that the pilot held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating. The pilot reported that he had about 400 hours total flight experience, including about 125 hours in the accident airplane make and model.

FAA information indicated that the airplane was manufactured in 1960, and was equipped with a Continental Motors IO-470 series engine. The pilot purchased the airplane in September 2016. According to the pilot, the most recent annual inspection was completed in July 2017.

The 0656 automated weather observation from Needles Airport (EED), Needles California, located about 18 miles northwest of HII, included calm winds, visibility 10 miles, few clouds at 10,000 ft, temperature 35 degrees C, dew point 8 degrees C, and an altimeter setting of 29.85 inches of mercury.