N1924S

On August 31, 1998, about 1330 eastern daylight time, a homebuilt Taylor Titch, N1924S, was substantially damage during landing at the William T. Piper Memorial Airport, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. The certificated commercial pilot received minor injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan had been filed for the personal flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.

The pilot stated that the purpose of the flight was to evaluate the flight characteristics of the airplane. He added that the pre-flight, takeoff, climb, and slow flight portions of the evaluation flight went as expected, but he was unable to evaluate power on stalls, accelerated stalls, and power on turns because of a high engine oil temperature indication.

After deciding to abort the evaluation flight because of a high engine oil temperature indication, the pilot "spiraled" the airplane down from 2,300 feet mean sea level and entered a right base for Runway 9. While on final, and over the "numbers" at an indicated airspeed of 60 knots, he elected to configure the airplane with full flaps. He stated:

"Flying the aircraft with my right hand, I reached for the flap handle, located under my right arm, with my left hand and initiated full flaps. The next thing I knew, the aircraft was in a right wing-low attitude and the sink rate was exceeding normal....The aircraft's right wing separated from the fuselage and the plane rolled inverted [and skidded to a stop on the runway]...."

A witness stated that the airplane lost altitude when the pilot preformed a "sharp" turn. The witness added that the right wing hit the ground causing the airplane to roll inverted and slide down the runway.