Weber VENTURE N5QE

Summary

On 28 September 2006 at about 21:50 local time, a Weber VENTURE registered N5QE was involved in an accident near El Paso, Texas, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

28 September 2006 at 21:50

Classification

Accident

Location

El Paso, Texas, United States

Nearest airport

El Paso Intl (ELP)

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Weber VENTURE

Registration

N5QE

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Mc Kinney → El Paso

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DFW06LA216

1 person died.

The aircraft's inadequate landing gear design, which resulted in a loss of directional control and subsequent nose-over. A factor was the owner/builder's failure to incorporate modifications to the landing gear.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The amateur airplane nosed-over after landing on runway 22 (150-foot wide by 12,020-foot long asphalt runway). Witnesses reported that the airplane was reported to have either "jerked violently to the left" or "wobbled from side to side" upon touchdown. The airplane then continued to taxi down the runway for about 7,000 feet before the airplane nosed-over and came to rest in an inverted position on the runway. Correct air/oil ratio and strut inflation is critical for the proper operation of the landing gear strut. An improperly inflated strut reportedly result's in a "spongy" strut, which can aggravate directional control problems on the airplane. The original nose landing gear consists of a strut with a single-rod steering system and the design is absent gear scissors and/or a shimmy damper. A recommendation issued for the prevention of nose wheel shimming recommends for pilots to "lower the nose tire promptly, and keep it on the ground with forward stick pressure if necessary." The kit manufacturer offers an optional kit to upgrade the main gear strut air/oil ratio, making the strut more "rigid." The landing gear arrangement on the accident airplane was the original configuration, except a small spring had been added to the steering fork and a hydraulic operating steering system, activated by a switch on the control stick, had been added by the builder. However, a scissor-link/shimmy dampener was not added. In addition, the builder had not incorporated the addition of a canopy frame or a rollover bar. The main landing gear struts were also reported to be inflated to about one-and-a-half inches, instead of the recommended three-eighths to one-half inch of extension.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.