Accident Overview
A 50-year-old airplane was being ferried on a 1,700-mile flight with two pilots on board: the new owner (serving as co-pilot) and another pilot who was type-rated in the airplane. After the first 250-mile leg, the airplane landed due to a right engine problem. The owner replaced the right engine and continued the ferry flight. Twenty minutes into the second flight, the replacement right engine lost power.
Flight History
The pilots stated that they applied maximum power to the left engine but were unable to feather the right propeller. They performed a forced landing to a field, but the airplane collided with trees before reaching the field and then burned after impact.
Investigation revealed that during the previous five years, the airplane had neither flown nor received an annual inspection, except for three recent maintenance flights totaling 1.5 hours. The right propeller blades exhibited chordwise scratches, while the left propeller blades had no such scratches.
Wreckage Examination
Examination of the wreckage found three propeller strikes in the ground near the right engine ground scar and no propeller strikes near the left engine ground scar. The right engine mixture control was locked in the auto-cruise position, while the left engine mixture control was locked in the emergency position. Airplane performance charts listed the single-engine rate of climb with a feathered propeller as 350 feet per minute, and 10 feet per minute with a windmilling propeller.