Luscombe 11A N1627B

Summary

On 13 November 2004 at about 21:15 local time, a Luscombe 11A registered N1627B was involved in an accident near Redmond, Oregon, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

13 November 2004 at 21:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Redmond, Oregon, United States

Nearest airport

Roberts Field (RDM)

Coordinates

44.2569, -121.1500

Aircraft

Luscombe 11A

Registration

N1627B

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Redmond → Redmond

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA05LA015

Nobody was injured.

The student pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll. Also causal were the instructor's inadequate supervision and remedial action. Factors include soft terrain just off the side of the runway.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot/owner, who was sitting in the left seat, was taking instruction for the purpose of developing his proficiency to a point where the instructor pilot would endorse his log book for pilot-in-command operation of a tailwheel aircraft. The pilot had completed four landings on the first day he flew this aircraft, and had done one other landing on the day of the accident. On his second attempt, while trying to execute a three-point (full-stall) landing, he inadvertently allowed the main gear to touch the runway first, and then the aircraft bounced back into the air. It then touched down in a three-point attitude, but began to veer off to the left. The pilot corrected to the right, but as he tried to make the correction, the aircraft continued to turn toward the right edge of the runway. Ultimately he put in full left rudder and a significant amount of left brake in an attempt to get the aircraft realigned with the runway, but these inputs were not sufficient to correct the situation. As the aircraft got near the right edge of the runway, the flight instructor came on the controls in and attempt to regain control of the aircraft, but it departed the side of the runway and encountered soft terrain. Because the left main gear tire had gone flat as the aircraft was sliding sideways on the runway surface, when that wheel encountered the soft terrain, the aircraft rocked up onto the left main gear strut, and the wing contacted the ground. There were no brakes on the side of the aircraft that the instructor was sitting on. In his written report to the NTSB, the pilot stated that when the aircraft first veered to the left, he might have overcorrected. There was no indication that there had been any anomaly in the tail wheel steering or flight control systems.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.