20121204028329A

The aircraft was found in a wooded area upside down with the canopy and wings against the ground lying on the top portion of a small ravine. The ravine had anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of standing water mixed with mud and was approximately 3 to five feet in depth with the canopy and wings at rest at approximately the 4 foot mark and the engine at the top of the ravine. The tail portion of the aircraft was bent over to the right and lying at the bottom of the ravine. The water in the ravine was clear to muddy in places but there was no evidence of oil slicks or fuel filming and there was no fuel smell. The airplane was relatively intact and there was minimal scatter of the aircraft. What little parts were detached were located within a 10 to 15 foot radius of the aircraft, and were mostly wood. The aircraft had fixed, tail wheeled landing gear and the fuselage was a tubular construction and the wings were wood. The fuselage and wings were mostly fabric and the cowling was mostly fiberglass. The aircraft had an anti-collision light but no navigation lights for night flying. The left wing was intact. The right wing leading edge had a circular impact up to the spar. The spar was wood and had cracked but not failed. The fabric on this wing had torn with the impact. Otherwise, the fabric covering of the fuselage was unbroken and the bottom of the aircraft was completely clean with no signs of mud, branches or scratches. There was a very large branch about the size of the circular impact of the spar lying about 10 feet from the wreckage and the trees were bare and a large tree adjacent to the wreckage had a fresh break corresponding to the large limb lying on the ground. The propeller was two bladed, wooden and broken off almost to the root on both sides, one side splintered and the other side more cleanly broken. I performed a control continuity check and found all flight controls to be mechanically intact and movable. The carburetor had been sheered both above and below its attachments. The gascolater located on the firewall and was safetied, inverted and intact with no visible fuel in the glass. I broke the safety and unloosened the set screw and removed the screen. There was no contamination on the screen and no visible blockage under the screen to the line from the gas tank. The airplane had a single tank system and the tank sat behind the engine, in front of the dash and above the pilot's leg area and rudder pedals. The tank and the line from the tank to the gascolater, were intact with no damage. Since the airplane was upside down, the filler port for the tank was underneath and could not be accessed at this time (when the wreckage was later recovered, the filler cap was found to be intact and in place by lt. hannah of the Collegedale police department who supervised the removal of the wreckage with instructions from me). I removed from the drain plug from the tank and used a stick to dip the tank. The stick was inserted all the way to the bottom of the tank and when removed, it was completely dry. The aircraft maintenance records were not in the wreckage, nor was an ELT located on the airplane. The aircraft wreckage was recovered by the police department and I traveled back to Collegedale with the following findings: the instrument panel was intact with nothing unusual or significant noted. The engine cowling was removed and the engine controls were fully intact and still connected to the engine/carburetor however the carburetor was broken away from the engine. The engine controls moved freely and correctly. There was no data plate on the engine. The spark plugs were removed and examined with nothing significant noted. The magnetos were intact with no damage. The engine case was not compromised. The propeller rotated and turned the crank smoothly anand freely and all pistons rotated normally. When turning the propellor, the mags clicked and there was compression in all cylinders.