Narrative:

The aircraft had an annual condition inspection last month performed by the holder of the repairmen's certificate for this aircraft. The flight was to be a test flight to determine the IAS stall speeds and to calculate the approach speed in various flight configurations. The airplane was given a thorough pre-flight and a parachute was donned for the flights. Upon rotation; there was a smell of fuel in the cockpit so the test plan was abandoned. The flight diverted to another airport because of it's longer and wider runway and no definitive knowledge of the proper approach speed needed. An uneventful landing was made and the problem was determined to be overfilling of the tanks. The refueling in preparation for this flight was done several days earlier and each 15 gallon tank took 16.6 gallons. This was confirmed by the elimination of a fuel smell on the second flight of the day. The second flight departed a little later and was 10-15 miles due south of the airport. A climb was made to 3500 ft MSL. The stall series was completed and the aircraft was in level flight when the engine started to surge several times. A turn was immediately made back to the airport as the engine returned to normal. About a minute later; the surges returned. At that point; tanks were switched; the other coil and fuel pump were selected. Shortly thereafter; the engine surged several times again and quit. A plowed field was picked as the best landing spot. Three attempts were made to re-start the engine with no joy. At 2500 ft MSL; it was determined that the plowed field could not be reached; so the landing spot was switched to a pasture. At about 500 ft AGL; it was noted that the pasture was terraced in the east-west direction; with the plane on a northerly heading. The decision was made to maintain the northerly heading and not make a sharp turn to the east as there was too much danger of a stall/spin condition. At about 5 ft AGL; the plane was slowed to stall speed and allowed to settle on the rising terraces. The aircraft touched down on the up-slope of a terrace and re-launched into the air. The re-launch took the aircraft another 10 feet further before settling down. Estimated touchdown speed was about 40 mph IAS. The touchdown point was on another up-slope. There was no more elevator authority at this speed to keep the nose wheel off the ground at that speed. The nose wheel caught the up-slope berm and bent back causing the nose to fall to the ground. Damage sustained was minor. The cowling sheet metal was bent as was the sheet metal and rudder pedals where the nose gear pushed into the fuselage. The left wing inertia of coming to a stop pulled the rear attach fitting bolt through the attach fitting. The spinner sustained some damage being dragged through the dirt on the under side; but the propeller did not touch the ground. The ground impact was mild enough to not trigger the ELT. Upon coming to a stop; all power and switches were verified off and the canopy was released. The aircraft was exited and a safe distance was maintained. A walk around of the aircraft was performed and it was determined that no fuel was leaking. No injuries were sustained in the forced landing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An LSA on a test flight suffered and engine failure and landed in a plowed field. The aircraft sustained moderate damage.

Narrative: The aircraft had an annual condition inspection last month performed by the holder of the Repairmen's Certificate for this aircraft. The flight was to be a test flight to determine the IAS stall speeds and to calculate the approach speed in various flight configurations. The airplane was given a thorough pre-flight and a parachute was donned for the flights. Upon rotation; there was a smell of fuel in the cockpit so the test plan was abandoned. The flight diverted to another airport because of it's longer and wider runway and no definitive knowledge of the proper approach speed needed. An uneventful landing was made and the problem was determined to be overfilling of the tanks. The refueling in preparation for this flight was done several days earlier and each 15 gallon tank took 16.6 gallons. This was confirmed by the elimination of a fuel smell on the second flight of the day. The second flight departed a little later and was 10-15 miles due south of the airport. A climb was made to 3500 FT MSL. The stall series was completed and the aircraft was in level flight when the engine started to surge several times. A turn was immediately made back to the airport as the engine returned to normal. About a minute later; the surges returned. At that point; tanks were switched; the other coil and fuel pump were selected. Shortly thereafter; the engine surged several times again and quit. A plowed field was picked as the best landing spot. Three attempts were made to re-start the engine with no joy. At 2500 FT MSL; it was determined that the plowed field could not be reached; so the landing spot was switched to a pasture. At about 500 FT AGL; it was noted that the pasture was terraced in the east-west direction; with the plane on a northerly heading. The decision was made to maintain the northerly heading and not make a sharp turn to the east as there was too much danger of a stall/spin condition. At about 5 FT AGL; the plane was slowed to stall speed and allowed to settle on the rising terraces. The aircraft touched down on the up-slope of a terrace and re-launched into the air. The re-launch took the aircraft another 10 feet further before settling down. Estimated touchdown speed was about 40 MPH IAS. The touchdown point was on another up-slope. There was no more elevator authority at this speed to keep the nose wheel off the ground at that speed. The nose wheel caught the up-slope berm and bent back causing the nose to fall to the ground. Damage sustained was minor. The cowling sheet metal was bent as was the sheet metal and rudder pedals where the nose gear pushed into the fuselage. The left wing inertia of coming to a stop pulled the rear attach fitting bolt through the attach fitting. The spinner sustained some damage being dragged through the dirt on the under side; but the propeller did not touch the ground. The ground impact was mild enough to not trigger the ELT. Upon coming to a stop; all power and switches were verified off and the canopy was released. The aircraft was exited and a safe distance was maintained. A walk around of the aircraft was performed and it was determined that no fuel was leaking. No injuries were sustained in the forced landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.