2011 01 was that a landing

32 JANUARY 2011

BY Steve Krog, CFI

THE Vintage Instructor

Was that a landing? Or wasit a carnival ride?

Seldom is an incident or an accident the result of a single major mistake or system failure. Rather, it

is the combination of a series of lit-tle mistakes that compound as the flight continues. This is the story of one of those incidents that demon-strates how little mistakes do accu-mulate. The result was painless and inexpensive, but it could have been much worse.

While doing pattern work with a student, we landed, completed our back taxi, announced our intentions on the radio, and began taxiing into position for a takeoff on Runway 29. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an airplane that appeared to be entering the traffic pattern for a landing on Runway 11. Neither the student nor I recognized the air-plane other than it was a tailwheel aircraft. My student immediately demonstrated good common sense and stated, “I’m not sure what he’s up to,” and taxied off the runway until he could determine what the new arrival was going to do.

The arriving airplane turned fi-nal and appeared to be aligned with the turf immediately adjoining the hard-surface runway. We both noted that this “could be interesting,” as the wind was blowing about 10-12 mph from the northwest, creating a downwind landing situation.

After turning final the airplane continued drifting southward to-ward the hard-surface runway. Be-

fore touching down (the first time), he was nearly off the runway, with his right wing overhanging the runway lights. The touchdown was hard, the aircraft bounced quite high, and it appeared that a lot of left rudder was being applied as the nose swung to the left. The second touchdown caused the plane to veer hard to the left, and the “carnival ride” began. He exited the runway to the left and rolled into a shallow drainage ditch, which launched the aircraft a third time. While airborne the nose began a swing to the right. On the final touchdown, the air-plane executed a full ground loop to the left.

I shouted to my student, “Watch the wingtips!” but the arriving pi-lot was quite lucky. While riding out a full 360-degree ground loop, the wingtips never touched the ground, nor did the tail ever come off the ground. Once stopped, the airplane was pointing northwest into the wind.

The pilot who rode out this “spectacular” arrival was quite shaken and remained in the air-plane for quite some time before getting his courage up to exit and look at the airplane.

Some time later I had an oppor-tunity to speak with the pilot. Still quite shaken, he began explaining what he thought had happened. After allowing time for him to vent and start to relax, we reviewed what had happened step-by-step. Here’s

how the scenario played out.It all began on a sunny fall af-

ternoon. While driving home from work, Dick* decided it would be a good day to do a little flying. Arriv-ing at the airport he met John, his friend from the next hangar, who also planned to do some flying. John had already completed his preflight and was ready to depart causing Dick to hurry his preflight, so that they could depart together. Small problem No. 1.

Dick hurriedly entered the cock-pit and sat down hard in the seat. He thought he heard a sound like metal cracking but decided to ig-nore it, as everything seemed nor-mal. The engine was started, and Dick began taxiing toward the runway following his friend John. While taxiing, Dick thought the seat felt different but chose to ig-nore it. After all, he had never had a previous problem with the seat. Small problem No. 2.

Once in the air the two friends decided to fly to a nearby airport and get a little fuel. Dick fell a mile or so behind John, because he seemed to be having a bit of a prob-lem with the rudder pedals. The air-plane wanted to yaw to one side. It was easily controlled, so Dick didn’t think it was much of a prob-lem. Small problem No. 3.

Dick didn’t see John enter the traffic pattern and land, but he did observe that John was already at the gas island. Not wanting to hold

John up, Dick decided to enter the traffic pattern and land as quickly as possible. After all, the surface winds when they departed were light and variable. He entered on a left down-wind for landing on Runway 11. The wind was blowing from the northwest at 10-12 mph, favoring Runway 29. Small problem No. 4.

Turning final, Dick noticed that it was hard to keep the airplane aligned with the runway, and things seemed to be happening a bit faster than normal. The rudder pedals felt uneven, and every time he relaxed the right rudder the airplane rapidly drifted to the left, causing him to overapply the right rudder, making the airplane drift to the right. Small problem No. 5.

Rather than opting to go around and land on a 200-foot-wide turf runway, Dick continued his ap-proach to 11, hoping he could pre-vent the airplane from running off the runway. Small problem No. 6.

The touchdown was hard, and he bounced fairly high. While in the bounce, the plane wanted to veer hard to the left. Continuing with the landing, Dick tried to re-position his right foot on the right brake. But this caused him to relax on the right rudder, allowing the airplane to yaw even more to the left. Small problem No. 7.

The second touchdown was also quite hard, rapidly causing a second bounce and allowing little or no braking action. A sec-ond metal crunch was heard, and the seat slid back and down. Small problem No. 8.

Heading for the left side of the runway, Dick was now just along for the ride. All he could do was hang on and keep the stick back. The plane exited the runway, rolled into the drainage ditch, and again bounced back into the air. When it touched down the final time, it proceeded to complete a full 360-degree ground loop be-fore finally coming to rest, point-ing in the direction from which it came. No contact was made with runway lights, and the wingtip

never touched the ground.Upon close examination of the

airplane, we found the seat was broken in two places. The initial break probably occurred when Dick first entered the airplane. The second happened on the second bounce while he was trying to jam the brake pedal to the floor, causing him to lose control of the airplane.

Further, we found one tail spring and clip missing. It probably hap-pened on takeoff, causing the rud-der directional control problems encountered during the flight and especially on landing. This would cause uneven pressure on one rud-der pedal while in flight and the tail wheel to be cocked to one side when touching down.

Could this spectacular arrival have been prevented? The sound of metal cracking upon first getting seated in the airplane should have caused a red flag to be raised. Even though it felt okay, something just wasn’t right. Secondly, a more thor-

ough preflight may have found the tail wheel spring in need of at-tention. Finally, being in a hurry and somewhat preoccupied with-the rudder problem, Dick failed to check the windsock for surface winds and most favorable runway, leading to a downwind landing.

The combination of a broken seat, missing tail wheel spring, and downwind landing caused quite a ride for Dick. Thankfully the only thing broken was the seat frame; no other damage was done other than Dick’s bruised ego.

The airplane has already been repaired, and new tail wheel con-trol springs have been properly in-stalled. Once the weather improves, Dick and I have scheduled some dual flights to repair his bruised ego!

*As you can imagine, we’ve changed the names to avoid need-lessly embarrassing a fellow pilot. We can all imagine how it would be to fly in his moccasins!

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 33