Tracy KOLB MARK III NONE

Summary

On 19 October 2003 at about 17:30 local time, a Tracy KOLB MARK III registered NONE was involved in an accident near Prineville, Oregon, United States. One person was on board and one was seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

19 October 2003 at 17:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Prineville, Oregon, United States

Nearest airport

Prineville (S39)

Coordinates

44.2869, -120.9039

Aircraft

Tracy KOLB MARK III

Registration

NONE

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Prineville → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA04LA014

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilot in command's failure to maintain aircraft control during an aborted takeoff. Factors include the pilot's lack of experience in this type of aircraft (pusher).

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

This was only the second time that the pilot, who was conducting a series of evaluation flights on a recently built unregistered aircraft, had flown a pusher-type aircraft. During the first flight, he could not keep the aircraft from constantly porpoising, and that flight ended in an "exceedingly hard landing." During the accident flight, the pilot pulled onto the runway, applied power, and lifted off to a height of about five feet. He then immediately cut the power and landed straight ahead. Then, because he still had a lot of runway left, he attempted another liftoff. This time he allowed the aircraft's nose to pitch up significantly steeper than he wanted it to, and therefore the aircraft quickly climbed to a height of 10 to 20 feet above the runway. The pilot then "immediately cut the power" and the aircraft pitched to a steep nose down attitude, and made a "very hard landing." As the aircraft impacted the runway surface, the pilot accidentally "hit the throttle" and the aircraft lifted off a second time. The pilot therefore "...chopped the throttle" leading to the aircraft hitting "fairly hard" a second time. At that point, because he had been severely injured by the two impacts, the pilot was no longer able to make control inputs, so he "...let the aircraft run off the runway and stop on its own." There was no evidence of any problems with the flight controls, and there was no indication that there had been any other aircraft anomalies that would have contributed to the accident sequence.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.