DEN89DTE03 · Galbreath VARIVIGGEN
Galbreath VARIVIGGEN · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From 00V to 00V
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN89DTE03
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Galbreath VARIVIGGEN
- Aircraft type
- Galbreath VARIVIGGEN
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N34VV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 00VTo 00V
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Elevator, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THIS WAS THE MAIDEN FLT FOR THIS NEWLY COMPLETED HOMEBUILT. IT WAS ALSO THE FIRST FLT IN THIS MAKE/MDL FOR THE PLT. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE ACFT WENT THROUGH SEVERAL RADICAL PITCH CHANGES IMMEDIATELY AFTER LIFT OFF BEFORE NOSE DIVING INTO THE GROUND NEAR THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RWY. ACCORDING TO THE DESIGNER OF THE ACFT, THE REAR MOUNTED ENG RESULTS IN A NOSE DOWN TENDENCY DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL AND THE STICK MUST BE HELD AFT. AFTER THE ACFT BECOMES AIRBORNE AND BEGINS TO ACCELERATE THE STICK FORCES BECOME NORMAL. HE SAID THE COMPANY ENCOURAGES PLTS TO TAKE AN ORIENTATION RIDE WITH SOMEONE FAMILIAR WITH THE ACFT PRIOR TO THEIR FIRST FLT. THE PLT IN THIS CASE HAD NOT HAD AN ORIENTATION RIDE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS NEWLY COMPLETED HOMEBUILT. THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO USE PROPER CONTROL INPUTS AND THE LACK OF INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE AIRCRAFT KIT MANUFACTURER ARE CONSIDERED AS CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89DTE03
- Event ID
- 20001213X28282
- Case number
- DEN89DTE03
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a2c48932ad935215545b6bf31da55afc73edb30bd3c714d351796332d8800e29; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:55:50.017Z.