Accident Sequence
During the takeoff initial climb while in a high nose pitch attitude, the airplane banked to the right and impacted the runway. Several witnesses at the airport, who are pilots, observed the accident sequence. As the airplane lifted off the runway surface, the airplane's nose was in an unusually high pitch attitude. Several feet above the surface, the airplane's landing gear folded into the retracted position as the angle of attack continued to increase. The airplane stalled, and the right wing and nose impacted the ground simultaneously.
Examination Findings
Examination of the engine and airframe revealed no evidence of pre-mishap catastrophic mechanical malfunction or failure of any system. The airplane has a maximum gear retraction operating speed of 80 mph and does not have a stall warning horn or light. The landing gear system is operated by a hydraulic pump driven by an electrical motor. The mechanic who worked on this airplane said the gear pump motor was the original factory installed one, which was underpowered and resulted in slow gear retraction times.
Operational Considerations
The pilot had recently installed a more powerful engine, which would require a steeper climb attitude to maintain a speed at or below the maximum gear operating speed while the landing gear completes the retraction cycle. The density altitude was calculated to be about 7,700 feet.