Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Prineville Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Prineville, Oregon 97754
Sunday, October 19, 2003 10:30 PDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
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.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
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).
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 10/19/2003 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 1030 |
| Event Time Zone | Pacific Daylight Time |
| Event City | Prineville |
| Event State | OREGON |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 97754 |
| Event Date Year | 2003 |
| Event Date Month | 10 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 441713N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1205414W |
| Event Location Airport | Prineville |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | S39 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 3240 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 18 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 270 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 15794 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA Operations Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | Oct 20 2003 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1430 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 30 2004 12:15PM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | Portland FSDO |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | NONE |
| NTSB Number | SEA04LA014 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | No |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Tracy |
| Aircraft Model | Kolb Mark III |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 065 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1000 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | Yes |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Oct 19 2003 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 11 |
| Airframe Hours | 11 |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Bill D. Tracy |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Redmond |
| Aircraft Owner State | OR |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 97756 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Personal |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | S39 |
| Departure City | Prineville |
| Departure State | OR |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1030 |
| Departure Time Zone | PDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | dest & departure same, accident can occur anywhere |
| Destination Airport Code | -- |
| Destination City | -- |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | -- |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff |
| Report sent to ICAO? | No |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 3 2004 6:42PM |
| User who most recently changed record | STAM |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 28 |
| Runway Length | 5000 |
| Runway Width | 60 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |