N88XKEric Hansen TEAM ROCKET F1 ROCKE · 2018

The owner of the airplane had recently purchased it, and a pilot had ferried the tailwheel-equipped, tandem seat airplane across the country and delivered it to him the day before the accident. The purpose of the accident flight was for the ferry pilot to familiarize the owner with the airplane’s avionics. For the accident flight, the owner was seated in the front seat, while the ferry pilot (who did not hold a flight instructor certificate) was seated the rear. The airplane’s rear seat was equipped with a limited set of flight controls that included a control stick, rudder pedals, and throttle. The rear seat was not equipped to control the airplane’s brakes.

The pilots departed and flew to a nearby airport with a 4,000-ft-long runway, where the owner flew an approach to landing that terminated in a go-around. The ferry pilot then demonstrated a touch-and-go landing. On the third approach attempt the owner was unable to extend the airplane’s flaps, so they aborted the approach to troubleshoot the problem. The pilots were ultimately unable to extend the flaps and elected to return to the owner’s home airport and land on the 2,500-ft-long runway there. When the ferry pilot initially attempted to land the airplane, it bounced during both attempts and he aborted the landings. The owner described that during the final landing attempt, the ferry pilot approached the runway at a “slightly faster speed” and that the airplane “landed long.” The airplane continued down the runway with its tail in the air. The ferry pilot, being unable to see the runway due to his vision being obstructed by his position in the rear seat, did not realize that the airplane was approaching the end of the runway until the owner called out to him. The owner stated that he began applying the airplane’s brakes with about 400 feet of the runway remaining. The airplane subsequently overran the departure end of the runway. During the excursion both main landing gear collapsed, and the forward portion of the fuselage and engine mount area were substantially damaged.

Following the accident, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector responded to the accident site and during his examination of the wreckage he turned on the master switch and extended the airplane’s flaps. The flaps extended normally.