N411JL

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On July 27, 2012, about 0846 eastern daylight time (all times edt), a Mooney M20TN, N411JL, experienced a severe nose pitch-up while climbing through flight level (FL) 180 to FL230. The private pilot, the sole occupant, initiated an emergency descent. During the attempted landing at the Lenawee County Airport (ADG), Adrian, Michigan, the airplane landed short of the Runway 23. The nose gear collapsed and the main landing gear separated from the airplane which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane. The pilot was not injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by 4thWave, Inc., under the provisions of the 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The flight departed from the Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, about 0732 on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan with the Manassas Regional Airport (HEF), Manassas, Virginia, as the intended destination.

The pilot reported that he departed Oshkosh under visual flight rules (VFR) and hand flew the airplane for about 20 minutes, and then he turned the airplane's autopilot on. Passing Muskegon, Michigan, he activated his IFR flight plan and received an air traffic control (ATC) clearance to climb to 17,000 feet above mean sea level (msl). The pilot reported that while in the climb, his backup oxygen system which he was using was not working. He descended to 15,000 feet msl in order to change his mask to the Mooney built in oxygen system. Once he confirmed that the airplane's oxygen mask was working properly, he resumed the climb to 17,000 feet msl.

At 0843:12, ATC instructed the pilot to climb to FL 230, which the pilot acknowledged. The pilot reported that during the climb, the airplane experienced a "violent pitch up." (The ATC transcript and radar data indicated that the pitch up occurred when the airplane was climbing approximately through FL180) The pilot stated that it was a rapid pitch up with no warning signs, and extreme forward yoke pressure was required to keep the airplane from pitching up to avoid a possible aerodynamic stall. He estimated that it took 100 to 150 pounds of force, with both hands on the yoke, to keep the airplane from pitching up.

The ATC transcript indicated that at 0846:43, the ATC controller asked the pilot if he had copied the routing instructions. The pilot responded, "Negative. I've got an issue right now. I'll get back to you." The radar returns indicated that the airplane was leveling at FL190. At 0848:42, the pilot stated, "I have to descend. I can't seem to control the airplane. It wants to keep climbing. I have to descend." The ATC controller issued a descent to 14,000 feet msl, and subsequently, asked the pilot if he was declaring an emergency. The pilot responded, "Negative. I think I have it under control. It's going to be a struggle." The airplane's heading changed to a more southerly heading. At 0850:59, the airplane had descended to 11,000 feet msl. ATC told the pilot to state his intentions, and the pilot responded, "Going to have to declare an emergency; can't hold the plane."

At 0851:29, another aircraft on the radio frequency stated that the accident pilot sounded hypoxic and needed to get his oxygen mask on. The ATC transcript shows that another aircraft made an unintelligible transmission.

The pilot stated that he had his oxygen mask on and he was not hypoxic. However, the task of maintaining control of the airplane was taking his focused attention, and the stressful situation resulted in his radio calls being sporadic and less clear than typical.

The pilot reported that his major concern was to avoid stalling and spinning the airplane. He therefore kept both hands on the yoke to keep the airplane from pitching up. He did not attempt to use the manual trim wheel to change the airplane's pitch attitude, because that would have required him to release hand pressure on the control yoke. He was uncertain when or how the autopilot was disengaged. He did not attempt to push the autopilot power switch located on the instrument panel, which works as the autopilot's system's circuit breaker, or pull any of the other circuit breakers. After the pitch up occurred, he tried using the manual electric trim split switch located on the yoke, but it had no effect. He stated that the airplane "would continually go into a stall condition, and this reinforced actions to keep [the] nose down, which required the greatest yoke pressure." He made no rudder application during the entire incident because he was concerned that it might cause an incipient spin.

At 0852:07, the pilot stated to ATC, "I just got to descend. I can't keep airplane down to descend." In order to lose altitude, the pilot reported that he "achieved a quasi-stable descent with a rapid spiral descent." The ATC radar returns indicated that the airplane appeared to be in a spiral descent. At 0901:59, ATC stated, "Say altitude." The pilot responded, "10,000…I just want to get on the ground. I'm having trouble controlling the airplane. It continues to want to stall."

The pilot reported that he encountered multiple violent pitch up and down oscillations near the bottom of the descent. The pilot seat was broken during one of the oscillations, which allowed the pilot to use his knees to apply forward pressure to the yoke. He stated that by using his knees to control the yoke, the airplane was "quasi-stable," but there were still pitch oscillations due to the lack of precise pitch control.

At 0906:18, the pilot stated, "I finally got the airplane under control. I'm at 3,000 feet. I might be able to take it down." The ATC controller stated, "Roger, what type of airport to you need?" The pilot responded, "I'll take anything. I might have to land in a field. Having a devil of a time controlling the plane. What's close by?" About 0909, ATC reported that they lost radar contact with the airplane due to the airplane descending below radar coverage.

The airplane continued heading southwest for about 8 nautical miles after descending below radar coverage. By referencing the airplane's moving map, the pilot decided to try to land at ADG. While still having difficulty controlling the airplane's pitch, he prepared for an emergency landing. The pilot used his knees to provide forward pressure to the control yoke as he flew the approach to ADG, which ended in a hard landing in the grass short of runway 23.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The 68-year-old private pilot held a private pilot's certificate with single-engine land, glider, and instrument airplane ratings. He held a third class medical certificate that was issued on January 3, 2011, with the limitation of wearing corrective lenses. He had a total flight time of 917 hours with 346 hours in the accident airplane.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The airplane was a single-engine Mooney M20TN, serial number 31-0096, manufactured in 2008, and powered by a 280 horsepower Lycoming TSIO-550-G1 engine. The last annual maintenance inspection was completed on December 2, 2011, and the total time on the airframe, engine, and propeller at the time of inspection was 410.5 hours. The total time at the time of the accident was 594 hours.

The airplane was equipped with the Garmin G1000 Integrated Avionics System which consisted of a primary flight display (PFD), a multi-function display (MFD), an audio panel, and attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), an air data computer (ADC), and the sensors and computers to process flight and engine information for display to the pilot. The G1000 also interfaced to the S-TEC55x autopilot and repeated the autopilot mode annunciations on the G1000 PFD.

The airplane was also equipped with the Garmin GFC 700 Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) which was a 2 axis autopilot and flight director system. The system consisted of autopilot controls on the MFD, servos with autopilot processing logic, flight director processing logic in the Garmin integrated avionics (GIAs), a control wheel-mounted elevator trim switch, a control wheel-mounted trim interrupt and autopilot disconnect (A/P DISC/TRIM INTER) switch, a control wheel-mounted control wheel steering (CWS) switch, a remote-mounted go-around switch, and PFD/MFD-mounted altitude preselect, heading, and course knobs.

The GFC 700 autopilot contained an electric pitch trim system which is used by the autopilot for automatic pitch trim during autopilot operation and by the pilot for manual electric pitch trim when the autopilot is not engaged. The manual electric pitch trim system was operated by a split switch on the pilot's control wheel.

The GFC 700 autopilot and manual electric trim will not operate until the system has satisfactorily completed a preflight test. The preflight test begins automatically with the initial power application to the aircraft and the A/P POWER switch set to the ON position. Use of the autopilot or manual electric trim system is prohibited if the preflight test is not satisfactorily completed.

The Emergency Procedures section of the Mooney Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) Supplement for the Garmin GFC 700 autopilot system provided the emergency procedures to use in the event of an AUTOPILOT OUT OF TRIM. The emergency procedure was:

1) A/P DISC/TRIM INTER Switch---DEPRESS AND HOLD---while grasping control wheel firmly

2) Aircraft Attitude---MAINTAIN/REGAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL ---using standby attitude indicator if necessary

3) Pitch Trim---RE-TRIM if necessary, using the trim wheel

4) A/P POWER SWITCH---OFF

5) A/P DISC/TRIM INTER button---RELEASE

-WARNING-

FOLLOWING AN AUTOPILOT, AUTOTRIM OR MANUAL ELECTRIC TRIM SYSTEM MALFUNCTION, DO NOT ENGAGE THE AUTOPILOT OR OPERATE THE MANUAL ELECTRIC TRIM UNTIL THE CAUSE OF THE MALFUNCTION HAS BEEN CORRECTED.

-WARNING-

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OVERPOWER THE AUTOPILOT IN THE EVENT OF A PITCH MISTRIM. THE AUTOPILOT SERVOS WILL OPPOSE THE PILOT I...