Garrison Melmoth 2, N2MU, incident occurred on October 8, 2026, at Whiteman Airport (WHP/KWHP), Los Angeles, California

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this writing will be corrected when/if the NTSB preliminary report is released.

https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=N2MU

- History of Flight:
On October 8, 2026, at about 1105 local time, a privately-registered, unique one-off homebuilt Garrison Melmoth 2, N2MU, sustained unknown, but apparent minor damage when it landed gearup on runway 12 at Whiteman Airport (WHP/KWHP), Los Angeles, California. The commercial pilot/builder was not injured. The local flight originated from the airport at 1059.

The pilot stated on his personal blog that: "So, despite all my precautions, what I feared I might some day do, I did. No excuse; I forgot."

The pilot added:

"Now I know a little of how a father feels who, while cleaning his gun, accidently shoots his child.

The good news, so far as there is any, is that the damage to the airframe is surprisingly slight. There is no damage whatever to primary structure. and the only unusable component is the airbrake, which took most of the punishment and, along with the exhaust pipe and the inboard ends of the flap trailing edges, held the belly off the ground. The rest of it will be easy to fix; the only thing that needs extensive repair is the airbrake. (And of course the exhaust pipe, half of which was ground away. It gave its life, you might say, to save the others.)

The bad news, however, is that both propeller blades are ruined, and the engine, having suffered a prop strike, needs to be torn down and inspected. As one of very few poor people who own airplanes, I can't possibly afford any of this. The only way to restore the plane to flying status would be to sell it; a no-win situation."

The pilot, aged 83, holds a commercial pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land/sea and airplane multi engine land and an airplane instrument ratings. He also holds a rotorcraft/helicoper, rotorcraft/gyroplane, glider, and lighter-than-air-balloon ratings. The pilot's FAA BasicMed was dated 12/26/2021.

The pilot holds a repairman/experimental aircraft builder certificate for the incident airplane which was issued on 10/7/2003. He also holds a similar certificate for the original Melmoth 1 which was destroyed in an accident by another airplane in 1982.