- Date
- February 17, 1989, 15:23 local (20:23 UTC)
- Place
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Injuries
- 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N330RHHarmon Velocity
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 22, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890217007939A
- Case key
- 32400
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The inability of the pilot to recover from the intentional stall with an unknown c.g.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
While intentionally performing stalls, the plt was unable to recover the acft from a nose high attitude before colliding with terrain. After the accident, weight & balance calculations could not be performed to determine the c.g. as the plt would not provide the pertinent information. Velocity manufacturer personnel stated the c.g. was aft of the limit. As a result a letter was sent to builders/owners of these acft advising them to refrain from operating the acft with a c.g. aft of 118.5'. A second letter was sent which advised owners to modify the wing fuel tank bulkhead locations as well as to suggest possible changes such as: limit the acft c.g. range; shorten the canard; move the engine forward; & change the fuel tank strakes. The pilot stated that the purpose of the flight was to test the modification of the canard.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N330RH
- Reported as
- Harmon Velocity
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- DM069
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360, 200 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Good, Marvin F
- Registered owner
- Exotic Aircraft Engineering
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 46
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 4,000 total
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 14 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- FXE, 12 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.