20011010029959A

(-23) The left aileron departed the aircraft during flight. The aileron was located over 3000 yards from the accident site. Unable to determine cause as part of the aileron is still missing. The aircraft hit the ground in a mear vertical descent. The wings were on a line with the east west direction. The top of the aircraft was facing north. The bottom was towards the south. The ground where the aircraft hit is a rolling hill wiht the hill descending towards the east. The engine and propeller assembly appears to have hit first followed by the left wing. The left wing then rotated towards the north about fifteen degrees. There was a ditch about six to eight inches deep and about a foot wide the full length of the wing. The wing completely disintegrated. The main spar was intact along with the rear spar. The top and bottom skins were destroyed. The aileron was missing from the left wing. A piece of the left wing root was found on the east side near the cockpit. An aileron tip weight was located approximately thirty feet northeast of the cockpit. The right wing was not as damaged as the left wing. The right aileron was still attached, but broken in the middle. The leading edge was attached, but shattered. The tubular fuselage was bent, twisted and had broken away from the engine and wings towards the north. The engine was buried in the hard packed soil up to the rear of the engine. The propeller was not visible. The instrument panel was destroyed and all instruments were ejected out of the cockpit. The altimeter was found under the tail. The face was concave towards the rear of the indicator and the needles were missing. The face of the airspeed indicator was found under the tail. The needle was missing and there was no apparent slap mark on the face. The parachute was partly pulled from the parachute pack, but did not appear to have been deployed, as it was still folded. With the exceptions of the left aileron, the wreckage was located within a forty to fifty foot circle of the point of impact.