According to a company spokesman, during a customer test taxi, the little Liberty XL-2 prototype went into the mud alongside the runway at its new home airport in Melbourne (FL), on Sunday. There was a prop strike in the soft earth alongside the tarmac, and, once again, the Sensenich wood prop did its job, sacrificing itself to save the IO-240F. [This was the third prop on that unfortunate engine. The first was chewed up in a terrible rainstorm last Summer; the second bit the curb at the AOPA Parade of Planes last Fall --ed.]

The two aboard, the customer-pilot and airplane designer Ivan Shaw, were uninjured, as the customer, either unfamiliar with the plane's finger-operated brakes (which are turning out to be more problematic than the manufacturer once asserted) or experiencing some sort of brake failure, managed to get the bird into the ditch. The plane should be repaired shortly.

**   Report created 3/24/2003  Record 6  **
IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 203XL        Make/Model: EXP      Description: LIBERTY XL-2
  Date: 03/23/2003     Time: 1616
  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Minor
LOCATION
  City: MELBOURNE   State: FL   Country: US
DESCRIPTION
  ACFT TAXIED INTO A DITCH UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, MELBOURNE, FL
INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:  0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   Y
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   Y
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
WEATHER: UNK
OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Taxi      Operation: General Aviation
  Departed: UNK                         Dep Date:    Dep. Time:
  Destination: UNK                      Flt Plan: UNK          Wx Briefing: U
  Last Radio Cont: UNK
  Last Clearance: UNK
  FAA FSDO: ORLANDO, FL  (SO15)                   Entry date: 03/24/2003