CEN17LA293 · Chapman T-BIRD II
Chapman T-BIRD II · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Washington County Airport (8WC) to Washington County Airport (8WC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17LA293
- 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
Chapman T-BIRD II
- Aircraft type
- Chapman T-BIRD
- 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
- N204BC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Washington County Airport (8WC), Potosi, MOTo Washington County Airport (8WC), Potosi, MO
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2002)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot, who had not flown this experimental, amateur-built airplane before the accident flight, had just departed for a local flight. Witnesses reported that the airplane made a right turn, the wing and nose then dropped, and the airplane disappeared out of view before impacting terrain. One of the witnesses stated that the airplane was having "difficulties" after it took off.
Another witness, who identified himself as part owner of the airplane, stated that before departure, he noted that the pilot's leg interfered with the control yoke due to the pilot's size and the small cockpit. He also stated that the airplane tended to "drop a wing" in turns, which required a quick recovery, and that the airplane was a little "squirrelly" because it reacted quickly to control inputs.
Several modifications from the original configuration had been made to the airplane, which included changing the landing gear from a conventional to tricycle gear; installing different brakes; installing a differently shaped fuel tank; changing and raising the seats; modifying the steering assembly; and, most recently, changing the flaperons to a flap and aileron design. The part owner stated that they did not conduct any flight tests or aerodynamic performance calculations after the modifications. It could not be determined what effect, if any, the modifications had on this accident. It is possible that the pilot lost control of the airplane during the departure turn due to the airplane's unique handling characteristics as the part owner described, the pilot's unfamiliarity with the modified airplane, or the pilot's leg interfering with the movement of the control yoke. The exact reason for the loss of control could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot's loss of airplane control during a departure turn for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17LA293
- Event ID
- 20170801X90744
- Case number
- CEN17LA293
- 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. 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: 4eb1130536ab40cccb99a544a3b153ae834baf7ccbafa0b20c2d9ff358e205e9; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:38:50.973Z.