# Incident 20180331000299I: Pae Isr LLC RESOLUTE EAGLE, Pendleton, OR, March 31, 2018 - Type: FAA incident report (Accident/Incident Data System), as reported - Date: March 31, 2018, 10:12 local time - Place: Pendleton, OR - Airport: Eastern Oregon Regional Airpor - Damage: Destroyed - Phase of flight: Climb - Location: 45.6951° N, 118.8434° W: Placed by OpenAirDocs at EASTERN OREGON RGNL AT PENDLETON (PDT), within about a mile (OpenAirDocs) - Nearby events: https://openairdocs.org/map.md?lat=45.6951&lon=-118.8434&mi=10 - Aircraft: N623RE, a cancelled registration (https://openairdocs.org/deregistered/N623RE-2020-04-03) (OpenAirDocs) - Registry model: Pae ISR RESOLUTE EAGLE (registry code 0610147, https://openairdocs.org/model/pae-isr-resolute-eagle) (OpenAirDocs) - Reported make and model: PAE ISR LLC RESOLUTE EAGLE - People aboard: 0 - Fatal injuries: 0 - Other injuries: 0 - FAA source: FAA Aviation Safety Information Portal (https://asip.faa.gov/) - Page: https://openairdocs.org/incident/20180331000299I ## Narrative As the FAA filed it, in capitals; the FAA replaces private details with ^PRIVACY DATA OMITTED^. A LARGE UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM (LUAS), CALLED THE ?RESOLUTE EAGLE? IMPACTED THE GROUND NORTH OF RUNWAY 25 AT EASTERN OREGON REGIONAL AIRPORT (PDT) NEAR PENDLETON, OREGON, DESTROYING THE UAS AND CAUSING A 2-ACRE GRASS FIRE WHICH WAS EXTINGUISH BY THE LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENT. NO OTHER DAMAGE TO PROPERTY OR PERSONS ON GROUND WAS REPORTED. THE UAS INCIDENT OCCURRED WITHIN THE PAN-PACIFIC UAS TEST RANGE COMPLEX (PPUTRC) CALLED THE PENDLETON UAS RANGE (PUR). THE ENTITY WITH THE AUTHORITY TO OPERATE THE PUR AS A TEST AND RESEARCH RANGE IS THE UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA - FAIRBANKS (UAF). UAF IS THE ?GOVERNMENT ENTITY? THAT APPEARS TO HAVE OPERATIONAL CONTROL AND OPERATING THE UAS AS A ?PUBLIC AIRCRAFT? FOR A ?GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTION? WITHIN THE PUR?S ASSIGNED OPERATIONS AREA WITHIN THE NATIONAL AIRSPACE SYSTEM (NAS) FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONDUCTING AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH UNDER UAF?S CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORIZATION (COA) # 2015-WSA-41-COA-TS FOR UAS CUSTOMER/UAS REGISTERED OWNER, PAE IRS, LLC. THE AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH BEING CONDUCTED ON 3/31/2018, WAS TO EVALUATE A MAJOR VERTICAL TAKE OFF LIFT (VTOL) CONFIGURATION ADDITION AND ANALYZE THE AIRCRAFTS ABILITY TO TRANSITION FROM VTOL TO FORWARD FLIGHT AND THEN FLY THE LUAS AS A TRADITIONAL WINGED AIRCRAFT. THE TEST WAS A PRE-PROGRAMMED PROFILE FLOWN BY A COMPUTER PROGRAM USING THE AIRCRAFTS FULL AUTHORITY AUTOPILOT SYSTEM. ONCE THE INITIAL VTOL TO FORWARD FLIGHT TEST WAS SUCCESSFULL THE UAS BEGAN AN AUTOPILOT/COMPUTER PREPROGRAMMED CLIMB FOR A CLOSED RH TRAFFIC PATTERN AT PDT RUNWAY 25. AFTER TURNING ONTO CROSSWIND LEG, THE FULL AUTHORITY AUTOPILOT REDUCED ENGINE POWER TO PREVENT ENGINE OVERSPEEDS AND THE UAS CLIMBED NORMAL AT 45 KNOTS. WHEN THE UAS TURNED USING A STANDARD 30 BANK TO ENTER DOWNWIND FOR 25, THE UAS WAS STILL CLIMBING BUT PIC NOTED A AIRSPEED DECREASED OF 3 KNOTS. THE AUTO-PILOT-COMPUTER SHOULD HAVE REDUCED PITCH-UP COMMAND AT THIS POINT BUT CONTINUED GIVING A PITCH-UP COMMAND WHICH FURTHER REDUCED AIRSPEED TO 38 KNOTS, FOLLOWED BY A 5 DEGREE BANK ANGLE INCREASE TO 35 DEGREES. AT THIS POINT, THE CONTROL STATION'S AUDIO STALL WARNING SOUNDED AND THE VISUAL STALL WARNING ILLUMINATED. THE UAS WAS OBSERVED ENTERING A STALL/SPIN AT A 70 DEGREE NOSEDOWN ATTITUDE FROM 200' AGL UNTIL IMPACTING THE GROUND. THE REMOTE PILOT/PIC DID NOT HAVE TIME TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE UAS FROM THE AUTO-PILOT. From the FAA Accident/Incident Data System. Reports are matched to registry aircraft by N-number and event date, checked against the reported make and model; the registry's history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model. For accidents, the NTSB's own investigation is the fuller record. --- OpenAirDocs.org is an independent research project of [Contrail Labs](https://contraillabs.com/). It is not affiliated with the FAA or the NTSB. Source documents are U.S. government works in the public domain.