Seguin QUICKIE N68TQ

Summary

On 13 May 2016 at about 22:30 local time, a Seguin QUICKIE registered N68TQ was involved in an accident near Mojave, California, United States. One person was on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

13 May 2016 at 22:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Mojave, California, United States

Nearest airport

Mohave Air and Space Port (MHV)

Coordinates

35.0589, -118.1506

Aircraft

Seguin QUICKIE

Registration

N68TQ

Category

Airplane

Year built

2016

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Flight Test

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Mojave → Mojave

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR16LA110

1 person had minor injuries.

A loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot and a colleague constructed the single-place, composite airplane with the intention of using it for air racing purposes. Rather than using the single piston engine and propeller specified by the original plans, they opted to power the airplane with two turbojet engines. The engines were designed and intended for use only on model aircraft and were mounted one per side on the lower fuselage, just aft of the cockpit. The airplane was in the very early stages of its flight test program and had flown only two previous flights with an accumulated total flight time of about 0.8 hours. The purpose of the accident flight was to begin exploring the crosswind handling characteristics and capabilities of the airplane. About 200 ft above ground level (agl) during the first landing approach, the pilot conducted a go-around and climbed to pattern altitude for another approach. While in the landing flare about 10 ft agl, a gust of wind from the right side disturbed the airplane, and the pilot applied power to go around. He heard one engine "spool down" and confirmed a power loss on the left engine via the instrument indications. The wind gust and power loss caused the airplane to track left toward an array of unused airliners stored at the airport. Since the airplane's single-engine minimum control speed had not yet been determined, preflight planning called for reducing power on the remaining engine and landing in the event of an engine power loss; however, the pilot maintained about 30-40% thrust on the right engine to avoid impacting one of the airliners. The asymmetric thrust resulted in a loss of directional control, and the airplane was destroyed when it struck a wooden office trailer and the ground. There was insufficient evidence to determine the reason(s) for the loss of engine power, and none of the three most likely causes (fuel flow interruption, air flow interruption, or flameout due to rapid and large throttle input) could be definitively ruled out.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.