N80JH

On July 26, 1998, about 0620 eastern daylight time, an experimental, kit-built, amphibious SeaRey, N80JH, registered to Progressive Aerodyne, Inc., operating as a 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight, crashed on takeoff from Florida Flying Gators Airpark, Clermont, Florida. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane received substantial damage, a hangar on the field was damaged, an ultralight in the hangar was destroyed, and the private-rated pilot and private-rated passenger sustained serious injuries. The flight was originating at the time of the accident.

According to the pilot, he and the same passenger had flown the airplane for about 3 hours and 10 landings on the previous day. On this takeoff, as number 2 of a 3 ship SeaRey formation bound for Oshkosh, because the airplane was loaded heavier than the day before, the pilot casually mentioned to his passenger, "It might be harder to get off the ground than yesterday." On rotation, the pitch controls were manipulated to the nose up attitude so fast, because of the passenger's "help" on the controls, that despite the pilot's countering the action by pushing pitch control nose down, at about 40 feet agl, the airplane stalled, fell off to the left, penetrated the hangar roof, and collided with a hangared ultralight. The pilot mentioned he owns a differently configured SeaRey; his model stalls at 33 mph, whereas the accident model stalls at 45 mph.

According to the private pilot-rated passenger, forward visibility out the windshield was the single biggest factor in the accident. Upon arrival at the aircraft for the dawn departure, he noticed the cockpit glass required repeated wipings, inside and out, during preflight walk-around, due to the early morning humidity. Even as the pilot added power for takeoff, windshield clarity was reduced, and according to the passenger, runway centerline tracking appeared difficult to see, and a left drift ensued. On rotation, once airborne, the pilot muttered something similar to, "something's wrong", the stick was oscillating side-to-side, and hangar avoidance became a concern. The passenger remembers seeing the control stick move right and rearward, feeling a stall, and grabbing the stick. When asked his opinion on having a pilot-rated passenger taking control from the pilot in command of an aircraft, he stated, "There's no way a less experienced pilot should touch the controls while the other pilot is struggling to keep the aircraft flyable." In a subsequent telephone conversation he asked that the following be written into the accident report, "If everything is going OK, there is no reason to touch the controls. No-one in a sound mind, if the takeoff is going OK, would touch the controls without advising the PIC."

The pilots of the other two SeaReys stated that they also encountered windshield fogging due to the high humidity, but in their collective opinion, it was a manageable situation.