Accident to a Piper PA23 registered N539EG occured on 02/22/16 at Saint-François
Décollage avec un réglage du compensateur de profondeur inadapté, tendance de l'avion à piquer, impossibilité de maintenir l'altitude après décollage, collision avec la surface de l'eau
The pilot was contacted to ferry the Piper PA23 registered N539EG that same day from Saint-François airport to its base at Pointe-à-Pitre after maintenance operations. The plane was to be used shortly after its arrival for a planned own-account flight for the company which operated it.
The mechanic summarized for the pilot, the maintenance operations that had been performed, carried out the start-up actions and engine tests with the pilot and then exited the aeroplane while the engines were running.
The pilot, concerned about ferrying the aeroplane to its base on time and swiftly vacating the aerodrome taxiway, quickly started the take-off without taking the time to check the pitch trim position indicator on the overhead panel, or get out the check-list from the flight manual which was placed on the passenger seat. The pitch trim was probably in a nosedown position on taking off.
After retracting the flaps, the pilot tried to use the electrical pitch trim control on the control column and then the manual control at the bottom of the instrument panel but was unable to find it. The pilot had not been informed before leaving that the electrical pitch trim control was inoperative.
Although the pilot was initially able to exceed the nose-down moment due to the position of the pitch trim during the take-off, the loads on the control column to maintain a positive pitch quickly increased due to the increase in speed. The pilot had to keep both hands on the control column to counter the loads and was thus unable to reduce the engine power.
With the increase in speed, the loads on the controls became greater and greater, the pilot was unable to prevent the aeroplane from descending and then colliding with the surface of the water at a speed of around 180 kt.
The break-up of the aeroplane’s cockpit and the forward ejection of the pilot’s seat on impacting the sea at high speed averted, by chance, more serious or even fatal injuries to the pilot.