Event IAD99LA044

Factual narrative

On May 22, 1999, at 1412 eastern daylight time, a homebuilt Sea Rey, N100RZ, was destroyed during collision with trees after takeoff from Mayers Airfield, a private grass strip in Ashland, Virginia. The certificated private pilot was seriously injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local test flight that originated, about 1410. No flight plan was filed for the flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. In a telephone interview, the pilot said he departed from runway 27. He said the initial climb was uneventful and that the airplane cleared the trees over the departure end of the field. He said he experienced a sudden loss of engine RPM followed by a total loss of engine power. The pilot said: "I checked the RPM and I think it fell off about 3,000 RPM. Then it just quit. All I remember seeing is trees." According to one witness at the airfield: "He took off and everything looked normal. He cleared the trees by 75 or 100 feet. Then the power just went to idle. It sounded like it throttled back. It cut back to less than half throttle and then it went back to wide open. The engine definitely cut back and then came back on strong, but by then he was settling in. Then it went out of sight below the trees." The owner recovered the airplane after the accident. In a telephone interview he said there was approximately 10 gallons of fuel on board. The owner said the fuel line was intact to the engine-driven fuel pump, and removal of the line released fuel under pressure. The engine and carburetor were removed for further examination. The wreckage was exposed to rain prior to recovery. The airplane was equipped with a 2 cycle Rotax engine. The pilot reported the purpose of the flight was to test fly the airplane after installation of the "stator", an ignition part, on the airplane's engine. He said the work was in response to a service bulletin from the engine's manufacturer. The pilot said he taxied the airplane around for several minutes after the maintenance work was performed with no interruption of power. He said that other than the loss of engine power after takeoff, "The airplane was behaving fine." In a written statement, the pilot said: "[The] engine had developed a miss which would manifest itself once every 5 minutes or so for 1 second. In an attempt to fix the problem we had replaced stator assembly as recommended by [manufacturer]. Several runups and taxis up and down the runway had not shown any problem with the miss or anything else." Examination of maintenance records revealed the airplane was examined in the month prior to the accident. The airplane was examined between April 5 and April 9, 1999, at a maintenance facility to "determine where loss of power is from." The spark plugs were cleaned and engine compression was checked. The fuel system was cleaned and the fuel pump and fuel lines were replaced. After completion of the work, a note was attached to the work order. It stated: "[The] engine has slight loss of power, maybe 200 rpm momentarily on climb out; checking fuel lines at the same time, lots of air bubbles running up fuel line. Checked on subsequent test flight when booster pump is turned on, no bubbles in fuel system and no loss of power. Customer aware [of] need to investigate fuel system further." After the accident, the engine was placed into a container for shipment to a test facility under the supervision of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Safety Inspector. According to the Inspector's memorandum: "Engine appears intact and runnable. Noted a chaffed fuel supply hose leading to [engine] driven fuel pump. This did not appear to be crash damage and would be a source for possible air in the fuel supply to pump." The engine was inspected and a test run was performed under the supervision of an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector on July 21, 1999. According to the Inspector's report: "Prerun inspection found a large accumulation of water in the number 1 and 3 cylinders. Water was drained, plugs reinstalled and the engine prepared for operation... Engine was primed, and started on the second attempt. Engine was warmed up at 2,000 rpm and was later run up to [approximately] 5,000 rpm with no problems." According to FAA Advisory Circular 20-27D, Certification and Operation of Amateur-Built Aircraft: "The FAA does not formally approve these designs since it is not practicable to develop design standards for the multitude of unique design configurations generated by kit manufacturers and amateur builders... FAA inspections of amateur-built aircraft have been limited to ensuring the use of acceptable workmanship methods, techniques, practices, and issuing operating limitations necessary to protect persons and property not involved in this activity." The pilot reported approximately 350 hours of total flight experience, 240 hours of which were in the Sea Rey. The home-built airplane, equipped with a 2 cycle non-certificated engine, departed on a test flight after installation of a new engine ignition part. The part was installed in an attempt to resolve a recurrence of engine power interruptions. The pilot reported the airplane climbed to approximately 100 feet above the trees at the departure end of the runway when it experienced a partial loss of engine power followed shortly by a complete loss of engine power. Maintenance records revealed a mechanic examined the airplane in the month prior to the accident to 'determine where loss of power is from.' After the work, a note was attached to the work order describing a loss of power during climb out, air bubbles in the fuel line, and the customer's need to investigate the fuel system further. The mechanic noted that the bubbles disappeared from the line when the booster pump was engaged. Examination of the wreckage revealed a chaffed fuel supply line to the engine driven pump. The engine started and ran in a test cell after the accident without interruption. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12