Stall Spin Fatality Shortly After Takeoff

On October 26, 2016, about 1730 central daylight time, an experimental amateur-built Wittman Tailwind W-10 airplane, N557CL, was destroyed when it impacted terrain on the eastern edge of Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ), Pearland, Texas, shortly after takeoff. The private pilot was fatally injured.

Multiple witnesses reported that the plane’s engine was at full power until impact. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety inspector noted that when the plane began to turn to the downwind leg of the traffic pattern it had a high nose up attitude and was uncoordinated. "During the turn the plane appeared to stall and entered a spin. Once the plane entered the spin, the incorrect stall/spin recovery was initiated and the plane increased its spin rate and impacted the ground."

The pilot, age 36, held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating. His FAA third-class airman medical certificate was issued on April 21, 2016, with no limitations. The pilot's logbook indicated that he had 243.2 hours of flight experience as of October 20, 2016, with only 1.3 hours in the accident airplane. The pilot's last flight review was completed on February 6, 2016.

According to the logbook, the pilot had a total of 22.3 hours in Wittman Tailwind airplanes, 3.2 hours of which were training. He received 2.2 hours of transition training in a Wittman Tailwind W-8 a few weeks before purchasing the accident airplane, and one hour of training in the accident airplane on October 20, 2016, when he purchased the airplane. All of the training was provided by the same flight instructor. The flight in the accident airplane consisted of 5 takeoffs and landings with the instructor, followed by 2 solo takeoffs and landings. 

LVJ is a non-towered airport. The airport is equipped with one runway, runway 14/32 measuring 4,313-ft in length and 75-feet in width. The main wreckage was located in a grassy area on the east side of LVJ. Flight control continuity was established for all flight control surfaces up to the cockpit. Continuity to the controls inside the cockpit could not be established due to impact damage, however examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Toxicology results were negative for carbon monoxide, ethanol, and drugs.

FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 90-109A, "Transition to Unfamiliar Aircraft," recommends training for pilots transitioning to any unfamiliar fixed-wing airplane, including type-certificated or experimental airplanes. The AC states that "accident analysis indicates that subsequent owners and/or pilots of experimental and/or unfamiliar airplanes have a higher accident rate during initial flight time than did the original owner. Therefore, the recommendation is that the subsequent owners/pilots of experimental airplanes receive airplane-specific training before operating the airplane."

The AC provides training guidance for flight instructors who teach in these airplanes. It recommends that training cover stall characteristics, including the airplane's slow flight behavior and response to control inputs at slow speeds. According to the AC, most of the pilot's total flight time was in airplanes with flight characteristics that could be defined as "Low-Inertia and/or High-drag." The Wittman Tailwind airplane has flight characteristics that are considered "High-Inertia and/or Low Drag" with "Light control Forces and/or Rapid Airplane Response."

During an interview conducted by an FAA inspector, the flight instructor who provided transition training to the pilot in the accident airplane stated that she did not provide training on stall characteristics as recommended in the AC. The instructor pilot was asked if the pilot had difficulty keeping the airplane in coordinated flight, to which she replied, "he was having an issue with that and did better on his last few flights." Hmm...

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