20180907013229A

Pilot and his passenger departed out of ktkx on runway 20 and began to climb. The pilot stated that after he passed 200 ft. he engaged the autopilot. The pilot was wearing noise canceling headphones and was having problems hearing air traffic control (ATC) so he began investigating his headset cable and realized that it was caught on something. As he was trying to free the cable, his arms were moving around hitting things and he realized he could hear the engine start to lose RPM and almost simultaneously received a "sink rate" alarm in his headset. He did a quick scan of the engine controls and they were all set as required so he asked his passenger what their altitude was. The passenger told him they were at 640 ft. and he stated that he was deploying the parachute. The ballistic parachute system deployed and swung the aircraft like a pendulum nose up and on the back swing; the tail struck the ground in a field. The aircraft slid approximately 20 ft. and the engine was torn away from the firewall and twisted to the right where it came to rest. The aircraft damage was, in a large part, the way the aircraft was designed to deploy the parachute straps along the fuselage. There was also a significant crack in the lower portion of tail just forward of the empennage and the engine was torn away from the firewall. The damage is substantial.