RANS S18 — Fayetteville, TN, 2011

RANS S18 — Fayetteville, TN

1 fatal Base-to-final turn

Date	August 2, 2011
Location	Fayetteville, TN
Aircraft	RANS S18 (amateur-built)
Purpose of flight	Personal
Conditions	Day · Visual Meteorological Cond
Phase / occurrence	Approach-VFR pattern final Aerodynamic stall/spin
Pilot age	70
Pilot total time	640 hrs · Building experience
Time in type	0 hrs
Fatalities	1

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in an inadvertent stall/spin. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's lack of recent flight experience.

NTSB findings

Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained - C
Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action performance-Pilot - C
Personnel issues-Experience/knowledge-Experience/qualifications-Recent experience-Pilot - F

What happened

The pilot was making his inaugural flight in the recently purchased, recently reassembled unregistered experimental airplane. After the pilot's initial takeoff from his home airstrip, witnesses saw the airplane turn back toward the runway then lost sight of it behind a tree line. They continued to hear the airplane's engine operate until hearing the airplane impact the ground. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no preexisting mechanical anomalies, and structural damage indicated that it had impacted the ground in a stall/spin to the right. The pilot had not flown in about 6 years, and when a family member suggested that he get some refresher flight training before his first flight in the airplane, the pilot declined to do so.

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