Jurmu STOL CH701 — Pulaski, WI, 2011

Jurmu STOL CH701 — Pulaski, WI

1 fatal Low-time pilot

Date	April 29, 2011
Location	Pulaski, WI
Aircraft	Jurmu STOL CH701 (amateur-built)
Purpose of flight	Flight Test
Conditions	Day · Visual Meteorological Cond
Phase / occurrence	Uncontrolled descent Collision with terr/obj (non-CFIT)
Pilot age	67
Pilot total time	166 hrs · Low time
Time in type	6 hrs
Fatalities	1

Probable cause

The pilot did not maintain control of the airplane during initial climb, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s lack of recent flight experience.

NTSB findings

Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
Personnel issues-Experience/knowledge-Experience/qualifications-Recent experience-Pilot - F

What happened

The airplane veered to the left during initial climb after takeoff, narrowly cleared a tree line, and immediately entered a steep climb before leveling off. It subsequently entered a left turn and then a second steep climb. The airplane continued in the left turn until it entered a downward spiral and impacted the ground about 800 feet from the threshold of the departure runway. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of any preimpact malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot, who was the builder of the experimental, amateur-built airplane, had logged no flight time in the 90 days preceding the accident and only 3 hours of flight time within the 6-month period immediately preceding the accident. Records indicated that this was the first flight of the airplane.

An editorial "what led to it / how to avoid it" analysis for this accident is generated separately and will appear here.