Eichman AEROBAT III N17638

Summary

On 20 July 1997 at about 12:28 local time, a Eichman AEROBAT III registered N17638 was involved in an accident near Brownsville, Texas, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

20 July 1997 at 12:28

Classification

Accident

Location

Brownsville, Texas, United States

Nearest airport

Brownsville/South Padre I (BRO)

Coordinates

25.9200, -97.4796

Aircraft

Eichman AEROBAT III

Registration

N17638

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

FTW97LA275

1 person died.

inadequate design by the pilot/builder/designer. Related factors were: the porpoise that was encountered by the pilot during the takeoff, and the subsequent jammed rudder.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot/builder/designer was attempting to fly the airplane on its maiden test flight. During the takeoff roll, the pilot lifted the airplane's nose wheel off the runway two or three times, then the airplane lifted off the runway and climbed to an altitude approximately one half of the airplane's wingspan. The airplane immediately returned to the runway in a porpoise like motion and lifted off a second time with a hard right roll. The airplane then impacted the runway in an inverted position. Postaccident examination revealed the rudder exhibited crushed areas at the bottom and top. The top crushed area matched dimensionally to the four-belt driven wheel which turned the airplane's propeller. A test pilot reported that during previous high speed taxi runs, conducted in August 1987, he had to apply 'stop-to-stop' elevator stick movements to maintain a steady pitch attitude. A review of the video tape of the taxi tests revealed that the elevator was moving in what appeared to be 'stop-to-stop' movements. The same elevator movements were observed in a video tape of the accident airplane during the attempted takeoff. The test pilot said he believed the airplane 'had some kind of pitch oscillation problem.'

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.