MIA00LA183

The delivery pilot flew the newly purchased airplane to the buyer's airport, and subsequently demonstrated its in-flight and landing characteristics to the buyer, seated in the rear seat. After a series of demonstrated landings and two landings conducted by the buyer from the rear seat, they conducted a full-stop landing and switched seats. The accident occurred on the buyer's first landing attempt from the front seat when he deployed the speed brake, got low on final approach, and landed short of the runway.

On May 26, 2000, about 1800 eastern daylight time, a Hays Long-EZ, N9JZ, registered to a private individual, operating as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight, crashed in the vicinity of Collegedale, Tennessee. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane sustained substantial damage and the private-rated pilot and private-rated passenger were not injured. The flight originated about 10 minutes before the accident.

According to the pilot, he just bought the airplane, and after about 2 hours of in-flight familiarization, two demonstrated landings by the front seated delivery pilot, and two landings conducted by himself from the back seat, he and the delivery pilot performed a full-stop landing and switched seats. The pilot stated the accident happened as a result of getting too low on final approach with speed brake deployed, and not being familiar enough with its cockpit control location and operation to retract them in a timely manner.

According to an FAA inspector, the pilot stated he elected to deploy the speed brake to help slow the airplane prior to landing, and the adjustment took effect so quickly that he found himself in a low and slow condition that full power did not help. The result was that the airplane landed about 200 feet short of the runway. The speed brake handle is installed in the front seat only, and all landings prior to the accident were conducted using the speed brake.