Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors
I was taking off of a gravel bar next to [a] river and my engine lost power when I was about 10ft off the ground. I immediately came down and landed back on the gravel bar. I was trying to stop the plane very quickly so I would not go into the river. I pushed a little too hard on the brakes and the plane slowly flipped on its back. I was not injured whatsoever. My pilot friends were there and helped me flip the plane upright. The damage was a broken prop and a 4 inch tear in the left wing from a stick on the beach. We closely inspected the plane for any structural damage and could not find anything that would be unsafe to fly the plane home. we retrieved a new prop and installed it. I flew the Kitfox home the next day. After talking with mechanics; it appears the engine lost power due to a vapor lock. I had just landed 5 minutes earlier before it happened. This is a classic scenario for a fuel vapor lock. A proper way to keep this from happening is to do a long engine run up to clear any vapor lock issues.
Kitfox pilot reported minor damage after a forced landing following a low altitude power loss related to vapor lock.