History of Flight
On April 23, 2011, at approximately 1530 mountain daylight time, a Cub Crafters CC11-160, registration N143FJ, operated by Flying Js, LLC, was substantially damaged in an accident at Everitt Airport (Rocky Mountain Airpark, 1CO8) in Parker, Colorado. The pilot and passenger were fatally injured. The personal flight was conducted under 14 CFR Part 91 without a flight plan and had just originated.
The pilot was giving a demonstration flight for a group of girl scouts. An adult member of the group was invited along. A cellular telephone video recorded by a witness showed the airplane take off, climb at a steep angle, level off, appear motionless, then the right wing dropped and the airplane spun to the ground, completing approximately one turn. Photographs from the passenger's camera, taken seconds before the accident, showed a group of people on the ground looking up.
One pilot-witness, standing in his driveway on the south side of the runway, reported the wind from 180 to 190 degrees at 15 to 20 knots with gusts. He observed the airplane lift off after a 200-foot ground roll and climb to 150 to 200 feet. Ground speed appeared to drop to zero as the airplane hovered in the high wind. Suddenly, the right wing dropped sharply and the airplane made a high-speed descending right turn, striking the ground in a right wing-down, nose-up (30 degrees) attitude. He saw no parts separate and heard no unusual engine sounds. Another witness, a former Army National Guard pilot, saw the airplane in slow flight with flaps apparently down. It made a tight 180-degree turn, appeared to hover, then pitched down and rotated out of view.
Other witnesses described the pilot's flying on previous days. One witness saw the airplane flying the afternoon before, holding it still in the wind “like a helicopter,” then pointing the nose straight up to nearly 90 degrees, rolling left or right, descending straight down, and pulling up. Another saw the pilot performing downwind departure stalls at 200 feet in gusty winds. On the day of the accident, a witness who attempted to ferry his airplane to Wyoming abandoned the flight due to cloudy and very windy conditions, calling it “terrible flying weather.” A third witness, an aerobatic judge, observed similar maneuvers at 200 feet with the nose above 45 degrees in gusty winds. A driver near the airport the evening before saw the airplane flying very low, making a steep left bank, and disappearing from view; she thought it had crashed.
Pilot Information
The 49-year-old pilot held an Airline Transport Pilot certificate with single-engine land, multi-engine land, and instrument ratings, and was type rated in the Boeing 747, Boeing 777, and Lockheed L-188. He held a first-class medical certificate dated March 28, 2011, with no restrictions. He estimated 9,000 total flight hours, with 6,780 in single-engine airplanes and 3,000 in the Cub Crafters CC11. His most recent flight review (airline proficiency check) was on January 11, 2010. Airline records showed 75 hours in the last 90 days and 135 hours in the last year.
Aircraft Information
N143FJ (serial number CC11-00160) was a two-seat, high-wing, fixed-gear airplane manufactured by Cub Crafters on March 21, 2011. It was powered by a CubCrafters CC340 engine (160 hp) driving a Catto 2-blade wood-core propeller with carbon fiber tips. An audio stall warning system was installed on the leading edge of the right wing root panel. Maintenance records showed the altimeter, encoder, and static system were certified up to 20,000 feet on March 9, 2011; an ELT was installed on March 21; a production flight test was conducted on March 23; and the aircraft received an Experimental Airworthiness Light Sport Certificate on March 24. On April 5, an airbag harness, autopilot, and fire extinguisher were installed.
Meteorological Information
METAR reports from Centennial Airport (KAPA), 12 miles west of the accident site, were as follows:
- 1453: Wind 190 degrees at 12 knots, gusting to 26 knots; visibility 10 statute miles or greater; few clouds at 4,000 feet, scattered at 6,500 feet, broken at 12,000 feet; temperature 8°C, dew point -5°C; altimeter 29.92 inHg. Peak wind 170 degrees at 26 knots at 1450.
- 1553: Wind 180 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 21 knots; visibility 10 statute miles or greater; few clouds at 5,000 feet, scattered at 7,000 feet, broken at 11,000 feet; temperature 10°C, dew point -6°C; altimeter 29.88 inHg.
Aerodrome Information
Everitt Airport (Rocky Mountain Airpark, 1CO8) is located about 7 miles east of Parker, Colorado, at an elevation of 6,295 feet msl. It has one turf runway, 04-22, 2,200 feet long and 100 feet wide. The airport manager was the pilot of the accident airplane.
Wreckage and Impact Information
The airplane was found flat on the ground on a magnetic heading of 195 degrees, with a 12-inch rebounding ground scar. The right side of the cockpit was open and the right wing was peeled back for victim extrication. The right wing fabric showed wrinkles from the inboard leading edge root to the outboard trailing edge tip. The fuselage was wrinkled from the top front to the bottom rear. The flaps were set to the first notch (15 degrees). The rudder was fully deflected right, the elevators slightly up, and the left aileron up. Both wings had leading-edge crush damage. Flight control continuity was established. The engine was canted 30 degrees to the right on a heading of 225 degrees. The bottom cowling was crushed and shattered. Throttle and mixture control continuity was established. One propeller blade was buried in the dirt in front of the engine; the other was found 300 feet away near the edge of the parking lot.
Medical and Pathological Information
An autopsy (Report 11A-264) performed by the El Paso County Coroner's Office on April 25, 2011, listed the cause of death as “blunt force injuries” and the manner as “accident.” Toxicology screening by the FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) (Report #20100085001) found no evidence of carbon monoxide, cyanide, or drugs in blood, and no ethanol in vitreous.
Additional Information
According to the Cub Crafters CC11-160 Pilot's Operating Handbook and Airplane Flight Manual, normal takeoff technique uses the first notch (15°) of flaps. Section 2.8 prohibits intentional spins. Section 7.5.12 notes that the stall warning system is activated by a vane on the leading edge of the right wing; as the aircraft approaches a stall, a horn sounds at least 6 miles per hour above the stall speed.