20101027050649A

Pilot taxied onto the active and as he approached the center line of the runway, the aircraft taxied over a large crack in the runway. The crack is approximately 4 inches wide and over an inch deep. The pilot then proceeded with the take off roll and at vr (30 mph+) the aircraft rolled over a second crack, smaller than the first, just as the pilot attempted to rotate. The nose wheel seemed to lock up at this time and the aircraft's mains lifted off but not the nose wheel. The aircraft then pulled right and flipped onto its left side, sliding to a stop. The pilot was not injured and the aircraft suffered extensive damage. The following is a writen statement received from the pilot. Prior to leaving the house, I checked the weather using fltplan. Com on my iphone. I also have a davis weather station at my house, and I checked that too. I live less than three miles from the airport, so the weather at my house is usually identical to the airport. I drove into town for breakfast and then went to the airport. After pulling the aircraft from hangar #3, conducting a thorough pre-flight inspection, and listening to the AWOS using my hand-held icom radio, I boarded the aircraft and started the engine at about 1145 MST. My intention was a thorough run-up, followed by three takeoffs and landings, remaining in the pattern. This type of aircraft has a very short take-off roll, so the usual practice at Benson is for trikes to perform intersection takeoffs. The very light wind did not appear to be favoring any runway in particular, but runway 10 is downhill, and sports less hostile terrain in the event of an engine failure after takeoff. I therefore elected to use runway 10.I taxied to intersection A3, holding short of the runway, where I then performed a runup and control check. Since the aircraft had not flown for a fairly long time, I performed a full-power runup against the brakes, ensuring that the engine was performing correctly. All checked out perfectly, so I began my taxi roll onto runway 10. As I headed to the centerline, the nosewheel impacted a 5" (wide and deep) lateral crack across the runway causing a noticeable and sharp "wiggle" through the foot controls. No other effect was immediately apparent. I then lined up on the runway centerline (impacting another crack), applied the brakes and brought the engine to full power. Once the engine had spooled up, I released the brakes and began the takeoff roll. The takeoff roll on this aircraft is usually 250-400 feet, dependent on load and density altitude. The aircraft was lightly loaded but there was no wind, so I was expecting a 300-350 foot roll before rotation. Just at rotation (at 35MPH indicated), the nosewheel impacted another lateral crack in the runway, causing another sharp "wiggle" through the foot controls. Immediately after that, the trike began veering to the right. I applied right foot input (trike foot controls are "push left to go right, push right to go left") to counter the veer, but the control input had no effect. I applied full left steer, but again, to no effect. At that point, the trike unit rolled to the left, pulling the wing into the runway surface. The engine suddenly stopped and the aircraft slid approximately 15 feet to a stop, resting on its left side. I turned off the electrical master and the mag switches, reached back and shut off the fuel (which was dripping from the breather pipe), released my seatbelt, removed my helmet and extricated myself from the collapsed wing. There was an aircraft in the pattern, so myself and three friends (using a pickup truck) rolled the aircraft onto its wheels and recovered it from the runway and back to hangar #3. As we rolled the aircraft upright, we noticed that the nosewheel rim was in pieces, with the left side of the rim pushed into the front suspension fork. We recovered the separated pieces. There was a significant flat spot on the tire. Looking at the runway, there was