WPR12LA413 · Ellefson T-BIRD II
Ellefson T-BIRD II · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF) to Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12LA413
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Ellefson T-BIRD II
- Aircraft type
- Ellefson T-BIRD
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- N8106C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF), Richfield, UTTo Richfield Municipal Airport (RIF), Richfield, UT
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the new owner of the ultralight had reassembled it and found that it oscillated during level flight and that the owner then contacted him for assistance in diagnosing the issue. He reported that he conducted a preflight inspection and noted no anomalies. Immediately after takeoff, the ultralight began to oscillate up and down with no elevator input. The pilot stayed in the traffic pattern, and the oscillations continued at different altitudes and airspeeds. During landing, the ultralight touched down about 45 knots with upward oscillations. The pilot decided to take off again and experiment with different trim settings. Upon liftoff, the ultralight again began to oscillate with no throttle or elevator inputs. The pilot decided to depart the traffic pattern to further experiment with the trim and power settings; however, different trim and power settings had no effect on the oscillations. The pilot indicated that the oscillations were random, so he could only react to the direction with flight control corrections and could not anticipate which flight control corrections would be needed. The pilot reentered the traffic pattern for landing and, during the landing, when the ultralight was about 5 feet above the ground and at 40 knots, the oscillations began again. The pilot pushed the yoke forward, which stopped the oscillations; however, the rear main landing gear touched down on the runway, which forced the ultralight back into the air. The pilot recalled that the ultralight's nose then pointed downward and that he pushed full left rudder before the ultralight impacted the ground. After the accident, the pilot learned that the owner had reassembled the ultralight without assistance from a mechanic. While inspecting the ultralight after the accident, the pilot noted that, if the pitch control cable was loose, it would randomly move. The ultralight was not made available by the owner for examination; therefore, the reason for the oscillations could not be determined; however, it is likely that the pitch control cable was loose, causing the random oscillations.
Probable cause
A loss of control during landing due to a pitch control malfunction. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s decision to continue flight with a known mechanical problem.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12LA413
- Event ID
- 20120910X90014
- Case number
- WPR12LA413
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 464e189225d686b0c9efd0d0c66c6f4b2836741de6c3dcd04be59dff54da3674; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:49:19.058Z.