N86NW

HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn June 7, 2014, about 1121 central daylight time, an experimental, amateur-built, Hermann Bjorn Lancair IV, N86NW, was destroyed when it impacted Lake Superior after departing from the Duluth International Airport (DLH), Duluth, Minnesota. The pilot, the sole occupant, received fatal injuries. The airplane was registered to A.O. Engineering Inc. and operated by the pilot under the 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Marginal visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, and an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed. The airplane departed DLH about 1116, and was en route to Goose Bay (YYR), Newfoundland, Canada.

The DLH air traffic control (ATC) transcript of the recorded radio conversations between ATC and the pilot indicated that the tower controller cleared the airplane to depart runway 9 and climb to 6,000 ft on a heading of 060 degrees. At 1117:24, the pilot contacted departure control. Departure control instructed the pilot to turn left and fly direct to Thunder Bay (YQT), and climb and maintain 12,000 ft. The pilot did not acknowledge this instruction. At 1117:25, the radar track data indicated the airplane was heading northeast at 4,467 ft at an airspeed of 131kts.

At 1118:00, departure control stated, "November 86 November Whiskey turn left fly heading 030 please." The pilot responded, "November Whisky left turn. Sorry about that." At 1118:03, the radar track data indicated the airplane was heading to the southeast at 4,689 ft at an airspeed of 167 kts.

At 1118:31, departure control stated, "And, ah Lancair 6 November Whiskey, it will be direct Yankee Quebec Tango present position. Direct present position." The pilot responded, "Present position direct Yankee Quebec Tango." There were no further recorded radio transmissions from the pilot. At 1118:31, the radar track data indicated that the airplane was heading to the northeast at 5,011 ft at 152 kts. The airplane continued on a northeasterly heading until 1119:46 when it started to turn right to a southeasterly heading.

At 1120:14, the airplane was heading to the south, southeast at 6,050 ft at 161 kts. At 1120:17, departure control stated, "November 86 November Whiskey, I still show you, ah, heading southeast bound. Verify you're direct to Yankee Quebec Tango."

At 1120:33, the airplane was heading to the south at 6,350 ft at 118 kts. At 1120:34, departure control stated, "November 86 November Whiskey, it appears you're heading southbound now. Ah, verify you're direct to Yankee Quebec Tango please."

At 1120:52, the airplane's last radar return was recorded. It indicated that the airplane was heading southbound at 2,400 ft at 201 kts.

At 1120:56, departure control stated, "November 86 November Whiskey, ah. Low altitude alert. Check your altitude. Immediately climb and maintain three thousand, immediately."

At 1121:05, departure control stated, "(unintelligible) 86 November Whiskey, climb. Altitude. Immediately maintain six, ah, maintain three thousand, three thousand."

The airplane impacted Lake Superior about 1 mile offshore from Brighton Beach, in Duluth, Minnesota. The airplane wreckage was located in 137 ft of water. The body of the pilot was retrieved from the wreckage on June 9, 2014. PERSONNEL INFORMATIONThe pilot was a 47 year-old German citizen who held a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial pilot certificate with single-engine land, multi-engine land, single-engine sea, and instrument airplane ratings. He held a third class medical certificate dated October 16, 2013, with the limitation for corrective lenses. The pilot's flight logbook was not obtained during the investigation. During his medical examination in October 16, 2013, the pilot reported that his total flight time was 2,500 hours. He had an estimated 22 hours of flight time in the accident airplane.

A witness who knew the pilot for 15 years reported that the pilot was an accomplished general aviation pilot with about 3,000 flight hours. He reported that the accident pilot had purchased a Mooney M20F in 1998 and had made several overseas flights in it, including trips across the South Atlantic and North Atlantic routes.

Aircraft records indicated that the accident pilot purchased the airplane on November 4, 2013. Witnesses who lived in Bend, Oregon, where the airplane was kept in a hangar, reported that the accident pilot received about 3 – 4 hours of airplane ground instruction after he purchased the airplane. It was not determined if the pilot received any dual flight instruction in the airplane. Witness statements and fuel receipts indicated that the accident pilot flew the airplane in December, January, February, and June, including a round trip flight from Bend, Oregon, to Las Vegas, Nevada.

On June 6, 2014, the day before the accident flight, the pilot flew the airplane from Bend, Oregon, to DLH. The time en route was about 4 hours and 32 minutes. The pilot planned to fly to YYR on the day of the accident. Flight planning documents indicated that the pilot planned to fly to Baden Airpark (EDSB) in Rheinmunster, Germany. AIRCRAFT INFORMATIONThe airplane was an experimental, amateur-built, Hermann Bjorn Lancair IV, serial number LIV-552, manufactured in 2005. The airplane was powered by a 750 shaft-horsepower Walter turbo-prop engine manufactured in 1992. The engine was subsequently rebuilt and reconfigured as a Walter XM601E-Prototype with a new serial number of 921012EX in 2003 identifying it as being manufactured specifically for the Lancair installation. The propeller was an Avia propeller which had a steel hub with three aluminum blades. The last conditional maintenance inspection was conducted on September 20, 2013, with a total airframe time of 666.3 hours.

The airplane was equipped with two Chelton CFR Sierra-SV Synthetic Vision Integrated Display Units (IDUs) used for primary flight display (PFD) and multifunction display (MFD), an Avidyne FlightMax Entegra MFD, and Garmin 530 and Garmin 430 radio and nav/com units. In addition, the airplane was equipped with standby flight instruments which included an airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, and turn and bank indicator located in the center of the instrument panel.

The accident pilot installed a rubber auxiliary fuel bladder in the back seat of the airplane. The accident pilot sent an email dated March 17, 2014, that he expected that a new bladder tank from TurtlePac should arrive at the hangar where the airplane was kept. It's uncertain when the pilot installed the fuel bladder, but it was observed in the airplane prior to the accident. The lineman at the fixed base operator at DLH reported that the black colored fuel bladder located in the back seat was filled with 60 gallons of fuel on the morning of June 7, 2014. Both wing fuel tanks were also topped off. The fuel receipt showed that a total of 136 gallons of fuel was added to the airplane before the accident flight.

Witnesses and the pilot's emails indicated that the pilot was having autopilot problems with the airplane. The pilot wrote an email dated June 6, 2014, to the hangar owner in Bend, Oregon, which stated, "I am in town since Thursday and working on the plane. One problem solved, the next showing up. Right now the autopilot tries to kill me. Flying straight and level high speed my electric trim buddy pushes or pulls all of a sudden. Very bad feeling, even worse that the auto-trim is on his side. I will meet RDD in Redmond early in the morning, begging for help."

The owner of RDD (an aviation maintenance facility) in Redmond, Oregon, stated that he received a phone call from the pilot concerning the problems he was having with the autopilot. The accident pilot flew the airplane to Redmond about 0730 on June 6, 2014. The pilot indicated that the airplane was experiencing violent pitch ups. RDD diagnosed the problem as an auto-trim reverse sensing which caused the nose to trim up or down which was backward from what was required. The fix took less than 20 minutes. All that was required was to flip a switch on the auto-trim module. After the work was completed, the accident pilot flew back to Bend, Oregon. The pilot did not tell the owner of RDD that he was going to fly to DLH on the same day. The owner of RDD stated that he received a text message from the accident pilot later that night that stated that the autopilot was working much better.

The accident pilot wrote an email dated June 6, 2014, at 7:00 PM to the hangar owner in Bend, Oregon, which stated, "I took a chance today to start the ferry flight. Right now I am in Duluth, MN. Tomorrow aiming for Goose Bay. I have still my back seat in your hangar. Probably will fly next spring or I find another way to pick it up asap."

The airplane which seated four was made of primarily of composite materials and had a maximum gross weight of 3,800 pounds. The estimated weight and balance of the aircraft indicated that the aircraft takeoff weight on the accident flight was 4,309 lbs., which was 509 lbs. over the maximum gross weight of the aircraft. The estimated center of gravity (CG) of the aircraft was 93.2, which was within the CG range of the aircraft of flight stations 86.5 - 94.5. METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATIONAt 1102, the surface weather observation at DLH was: wind 080 at 4 kts; 10 miles visibility; scattered clouds 700 feet; overcast ceiling 2,500 feet; temperature 12 degrees C; dew point 9 degrees C; altimeter 30.06 inches of mercury.

At 1122, the surface weather observation at DLH was: wind 140 at 9 kts; 10 miles visibility; scattered clouds 300 feet; broken ceiling 1,000 feet; overcast ceiling 2,700 feet; temperature 11 degrees C; dew point 10 degrees C; altimeter 30.06 inches of mercury; ceiling variable 700 feet to 1,100 feet.

At 1132, the surface weather observation at DLH was: wind 120 at 6 kts; 10 miles visibility; ceiling 300 feet broken; overcast 1,000 feet; temperature 11 de...