Lammers Sjef J APACHE N566RL

Summary

On 20 May 2011 at about 17:45 local time, a Lammers Sjef J APACHE registered N566RL, operated by Lammers Stef J, was involved in an accident near Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and one was seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

20 May 2011 at 17:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Meadow Lake (KFLY)

Coordinates

38.9406, -104.4019

Aircraft

Lammers Sjef J APACHE

Registration

N566RL

Engines

1

Operator

Lammers Stef J

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Colorado Springs → Colorado Springs

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN11CA360

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilot's failure to maintain control of the aircraft during take-off in a cross wind, which resulted in an inadvertent stall.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

On the morning of the accident, the pilot had removed his single-surface wing and installed a dual-surface wing on his weight shift aircraft. The winds were calm and he conducted an uneventful test flight. The pilot returned to his hangar and made some adjustments to the control bar but elected to not do another test flight because the winds were increasing at the airport. Later that afternoon, the pilot decided to do a second test flight because the wind had decreased some. The pilot departed with an 80 degree crosswind between 5 and 10 knots. He said that he did not build up sufficient airspeed on the takeoff roll and once he got airborne he was about 5 knots above stall speed and very slow. When the aircraft was approximately 100 feet in the air, he encountered wind shear and the right wing stalled and dropped. The pilot was unable to recover and the aircraft crashed on the right side of the runway, resulting in substantial damage to the entire aircraft.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.