20190920020019A

Accident involving a vans RV-10 with 4 people on board landing in farmers field approximately .5 mile east of Lancaster Airport (lnc) due to loss of engine power. No fatalities, no injuries.

Lancaster regional airport has no ATC service and is class e airspace.

Details from pilot and witness statements:

On Friday, 20 September 2019 aircraft N569JC was on its second sortie of the day with PIC and three passengers on board. One of the passengers is the aircraft owner. Takeoff was normal and after a few maneuvers, the pilot intended to do one touch and go at lnc followed by landing at lnc, end of flight. On the go around there is a vibration and back fire from the engine, along with unusual noises. The pilot confirmed throttle full forward, prop full forward, and mixture full rich with boost pump on. He noticed the manifold pressure was reading 27 and a reduction in power. The pilot states he couldn?t land with the runway remaining so he raised the flaps and started a gentle left turn in the pattern. He was able to continue his climb at this point. After turning into a ?tight downwind? At 500-700 feet AGL, there wasn?t enough power to continue climbing. The pilot again confirmed his power settings and saw a manifold pressure of 17 inches. The aircraft began descending and the pilot realized he could not make the runway. The pilot and two passengers state that the engine progressively got worse and the last manifold pressure reading was 14 inches at full throttle. Landing was made in a soft, plowed field where the nose gear was ripped off, the main gear collapsed and the aircraft came to rest upright, having slid approximately 25 yards and rotated 90 degrees left. No further incident and no injuries reported. Time of accident 1945 hrs CST.

Facts from investigation of the scene:

The field the aircraft landed in was plowed and soft with raised rows in alignment with the aircraft initial touch-down heading. The initial impact of the aircraft was not evident by any marks on the ground, probably due to the rough/broken surface. A debris field was evident, containing mostly broken composite wheel skirts from all three wheels. There was also some ducting and a valve broken from the bottom of the engine as the nose gear broke and the lower engine cowl dug into the ground. The beginning of the debris field is approximately 25 yards from aircraft. The debris field and the statement from Mr. Yohe seem to indicate that the initial impact was hard and only on the mains. This broke the main wheel skirts and spread the mains apart. It appears the aircraft bounced and then hit hard on nose gear shearing it off, along with all remaining wheel skirt material. The aircraft then hit nose low breaking off the ducting and valve which were closest to the aircraft?s final resting place. The left main gear was pushed into bottom of wing and unable to turn which seemed to cause the 90 left rotation at the final few feet of the slide. The prop had both blades bent back with tip damage indicating contact with ground. Both of the wings have wrinkles in upper skins and both have damage at outer tips; the left wing has substantial tip damage.

No evidence of fire, fluid leaks at or around the aircraft.

Fuel is visible in left and right wing tanks. Fuel selector was in ?left? Position. The pilot stated that he switched tanks after the engine trouble started, with no improvement in performance.

The aircraft and engine logbooks were inspected at the hangar of klnc cross country aviation. The most recent inspection was dated 15 June 2019 with 471.64 acft total time and 452.6 panel hobbs meter reading. The panel hobbs meter reading is currently 468.1 hours. The most recent entry in engine logbook was dated 13 June 2019, oil and filter change with test run. Nothing in logbooks indicates any airworthiness issues.

Pilot: dob 11/16/1962, ATP, total hours 18560.