N15180

On July 6, 2021, about 1445 central daylight time, a Titan T-51D airplane, N15180, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Ashtabula, Ohio. The pilot was not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 test flight.

The intent of the flight was to perform fuel flow and fuel indicator checks on the newly-built airplane while taxiing on the ground; however, they were not able to obtain full engine performance on the ground and the pilot elected to take the airplane into the air. After takeoff, while climbing through 200 ft agl, the engine lost power. The pilot reported that the engine computer circuit breaker had tripped and the engine lost power. He attempted to reset the circuit breaker and restart the engine, but the circuit breaker would not reset. The pilot nosed the airplane over to maintain an airspeed of 75 mph and landed on the remaining part of the 5,900-ft runway; however, a high sink rate developed. The airplane landed on the runway hard, and the left main landing gear collapsed. The left wing sustained substantial damage.

The airplane’s owner reported that, before the flight, oxygen sensors were installed on the cylinders’ exhaust pipes to determine if the engine was running rich or lean. The sensors received their power from the engine computer. After the accident, data from the Garmin flight director showed increased electrical demand during the maintenance engine runs. During these runs, maximum engine power was never attained due to the inability to secure the airplane in place. The sensors were left installed to collect inflight engine performance information. During the initial climb, the increased engine power placed an increased electrical load on the engine’s control computer that exceeded its 15-ampere rating which tripped the circuit breaker and resulted in the loss of engine power.