Incident Overview
On April 16, 2010, at 0830 Pacific daylight time, an experimental Bibbee Cozy Mark (MK) IV, registration N68TF, collided with terrain near North Las Vegas, Nevada. The commercial pilot, who was also the owner, sustained minor injuries. The airplane incurred substantial damage to its wings, fuselage, and empennage. The local personal flight had departed North Las Vegas Airport about 0818 under visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan was filed.
Aircraft and Pilot Background
The pilot had recently purchased the airplane, which had been built by another individual. The aircraft had a total time of 410 hours. The pilot had logged 64 hours as pilot-in-command in this make and model.
Sequence of Events
The flight's purpose was to determine the minimum speed of the canard-equipped airplane at a light weight. After reaching the practice area, the pilot climbed to 7,000 feet. He established that 67 knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) was the lowest speed the airplane could maintain before the canard stalled, which was 17 knots above the published minimum speed. The pilot then performed two stalls involving only the canard, with no abnormalities noted.
During a third stall, the main wing suddenly stalled without warning. The airplane began to sink rapidly in a level to slightly nose-high attitude. The pilot immediately applied full nose-down elevator as recommended in the operating handbook, but the airplane did not respond. Application of full power also failed to produce any pitch response. The rudders remained mildly effective, so the pilot attempted to roll the airplane to lower the nose and break the stall. After two unsuccessful attempts, the airplane remained stalled with a high rate of descent. As the ground approached, the pilot leveled the wings using rudder input while keeping the engine at full power. The airplane struck the ground in a level attitude and came to a halt almost immediately. The pilot then shut down the engine using the throttle and mixture controls, turned off the ignition switches and electrical master switch, and egressed. He was able to walk away from the wreckage and contact emergency services via cell phone.
Postaccident Findings
During the postaccident inspection, the pilot reported that the builder had not installed the canard at the proper angle of incidence and had failed to ensure the correct elevator control deflections. The builder had informed the pilot that a mandatory plans change affecting the canard had been implemented, but according to the pilot, it had not. Additionally, the pilot's operating handbook had not been updated with a required change that would have highlighted these problems.
Prior to purchasing the airplane, the pilot had it inspected by a company authorized by the current owner of the designer's plan rights to provide builder support. The inspection aimed to identify discrepancies, but none were found. The pilot later learned that all of the discrepancies had been addressed in newsletters sent from the kit manufacturer to builders. However, these newsletters were not included with the materials the pilot received when he bought the airplane. He reported that the newsletters had been out of print for four years before his purchase and were no longer available in written form.