October 30 started off as a beautiful, sunny day with unlimited ceiling/visibility and light/variable winds. After a thorough pre-flight and two hi-speed taxi runs, N811RJ took off. The engine was sounding excellent, aircraft was stable in all parameters, THEN at 300' began losing power, engine still running and no obvious instrument/gauge indication anything was wrong. Aircraft entered a left hand l5 degree turn and safely landed upon a dry flat area next the riverbed. UNFORTUNATELY, the aircraft slid on the light dust over the hard surface for over 450' and impacted an earth berm just before Camelback Rd.
The plane was being flown by an excellent test pilot, who was injured, receiving a deep cut in the forehead, requiring 21 stitches, slight abrasions on his left hand. He will heal and be okay. Test pilot told me he lost power at 300' and the engine responded to mixture and throttle, just no power. Shut everything down just be landing. Impact with berm at about 40 mph. The shoulder harness attachment points failed, ripping the wooden structure from the fuselage. Damage includes spinner & plate, 2 prop blades, nose gear, one exhaust pipe, oil filter casting, distributor cap, main spar broke loose from fuselage breaking framework around it, pilot side left rudder pedal bent, bottom of the fuselage from firewall (firewall loose in a few places) to back the pilot seat torn loose. FAA/NTSB preliminary conclusion is that the fuel tank vent was blocked partially somehow at altitude and caused the loss of power. I HAVE STARTED REBUILDING. Until I know more, Bob -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter. We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam. SPAMfighter has removed 3087 of my spam emails to date. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len The Professional version does not have this message
