What a fantastic flight I had May 27 before the runway excursion. All my work to improve oil temperatures and fuel pressure were successful , she trimmed out fantastic and the auto pilot worked like a charm.
Unfortunately I have done major damage to my recently finished "Vision" homebuilt aircraft. Thankfully no personal injuries to me after a wonderful flight of 2.5 hours at the 10 hour flight time. Coming in to land at Springbank, I had a few go around landing attempts, then all was looking perfect for alignment and sink rate but a 2 ft bounce turned me 20 degrees into a bit of crosswind and I headed off the runway 26 to the right. As I rolled out into the grass I figured this is no big deal. Then the ditch appeared in front of me. It was six foot deep and about 25 ft across. The plane pancaked into the bottom of the ditch with the nose cone resting on the far bank of the ditch.
The landing gear folded back under the wing which snapped the engine mount in a few places and levered the engine nose down which partially broke the firewall upper half away from the main fuselage structure. Air scoop was destroyed and the lower cowling was substantially damaged. I had previously stopped the engine and the propeller was horizontal without damage to the engine or propeller.
Presently I am taking the aircraft apart and have decided I am not going to repair the damage. Maybe someone younger than me will be interested in doing the repairs to get it in the air once again. It needs the firewall rebuilt, gear straightened, engine mount rebuilt, and lower cowling and air intake scoop rebuilt. But for the time being I will continue disassembly. If I don't find a interested purchaser then will disassemble and sell off all the individual valuable items. I am about to turn 75 in a few months and I know I don’t have it in me to rebuild the airplane. Stop by to have a look if you wish.
