20160830007069A

At approximately 11:02 a.m. local time N114LC, an American legend AL3 light sport airplane, sustained substantial damage following a hard landing and an excursion from the runway into a ditch at the airport in Sedona, AZ (sez). This was witnessed by a commercial EMS helicopter pilot based at the airport. His account is considered reliable and agrees with all physical evidence at the scene.

According to the eyewitness, the airplane?s approach to runway-03 appeared mostly normal, however, at a height of approximately ten feet (10?) Over the runway the airplane pitched up to a landing attitude, and then generally maintained that height until stalling. Once stalled, the airplane dropped and struck runway on its main landing gear, then bounced back into the air. Despite aerodynamically stalling the airplane still had forward momentum and struck the runway again approximately fifty feet (50?) Further down the runway, again on its main landing gear. After an additional but smaller bounce, the airplane began rolling and almost immediately turned left between taxiways A6 and A5 where it exited the runway and came to rest in a ditch between the runway-03 and taxiway-a. the eyewitness reported that the airplane made a hard and sudden stop in the ditch ? A stop so immediate that it reportedly caused the tail to go completely vertical to the point where the witness wasn?t sure if it would come to rest upright or upside-down. The airplane?s tail returned and the airplane came to rest mostly level and upright with the landing gear in the ditch. Prominent tire marks (not skids) on the runway indicate where the airplane bounced then swerved off. Additional tire grooves through the dirt continue to where the airplane came to rest.

The airplane sustained substantial damage when the landing gear were impacted hard enough to bend the fuselage frame on both sides immediately aft of the rear landing gear mounts. The right landing gear was folded in half, and a small portion of it punctured the fuselage fabric. This was most likely caused by skidding through the dirt and being caught in the ditch. The left side of the landing gear bungee brace (cabane-vee assembly) was damaged and the right side was severed, most likely from the airplane impacting/bouncing on the runway, which also explains why it veered left once rolling on the ground. The engine stopped when the propeller struck the dirt. This is indicated by dirt on one propeller tip in addition to a crack that runs completely through that blade of the composite propeller. The engine firewall was also slightly dented by the exhaust muffler presumably when the engine mount frame flexed. The right wingtip had light damage from scuffing the dirt, and the lower engine cowl including intake air filter was damaged.

After the airplane came to rest, the pilot exited the airplane. He states that he was uninjured.

The weather conditions were clear VFR, and the airport weather computer recorded that the wind was varying between calm and 150-degrees at 5-knots at the time of the accident.