What happened
On October 12, 2015, an experimental amateur-built Free Bird Classic, registration N176FB, was destroyed while maneuvering to land at a private airstrip near Kylertown, Pennsylvania. The flight, which originated from the same private airstrip at approximately 1815, was the pilot's first flight in the aircraft, which he had recently completed.
Witnesses observed the airplane performing circuits around the airstrip. During the final approach, witnesses reported different observations of the aircraft's behavior: one witness stated the airplane was in level flight at 50 feet before suddenly nosed over, while another observed the right wing flip up approximately 90 degrees at an altitude of 100 feet before the aircraft descended. Multiple witnesses noted the sound of the engine revving up immediately prior to impact.
The aircraft came to rest on a road in a steep, nose-down attitude approximately 500 yards short of the runway. There was no post-impact fire. The impact resulted in 1 fatality.
The investigation
An FAA inspector examined the wreckage and found that the engine, left wing, and right wing fuel tank had separated from the airframe. The right wing was significantly damaged, which prevented a full examination of the flight control system. The aircraft had been issued a special airworthiness certificate on August 27, 2015, with zero hours of flight time recorded.
The pilot was an 83-year-old certified repairman and experimental-aircraft builder with 682 total flight hours. An autopsy determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma, and toxicology results were negative.
Findings
Investigators determined that the aircraft impacted the terrain in a nearly vertical, nose-down attitude with no apparent forward momentum at the time of impact. This condition was consistent with an aerodynamic stall/spin. The investigation concluded that the pilot, being unfamiliar with the flight characteristics of this specific aircraft, allowed the airspeed to decay during the approach, causing the airplane to exceed its critical angle of attack.