Piper PA-18-150 N4030Z

Summary

On 13 January 2011 at about 00:00 local time, a Piper PA-18-150 registered N4030Z, operated by Joe Dory, was involved in an accident near Austin, Nevada, United States. One person was 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 January 2011 at 00:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Austin, Nevada, United States

Coordinates

36.2400, -115.2293

Aircraft

Piper PA-18-150

Registration

N4030Z

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Joe Dory

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Austin → Austin

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR11CA098

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was on a local flight around his home airport when he decided to see how much snow was on the local mountains. He observed a ridge top airstrip where he had landed on several previous occasions, and saw that most of it was blown clear of snow. He overflew the airstrip, decided that it looked good, and made an uneventful landing. He walked around a bit, looked at snow depths, and then departed back to his home airport. During the takeoff roll, the airplane drifted too far to the right over what he thought was ground covered with light snow. It was actually a snow drift made from snow that had blown to the side of the ridge. The airplane started pulling to the right as a result of contact with the snow drift. The pilot still thought that the airplane would take off without difficulty, but the right main tire broke through the crust and dug in. The airplane nosed over onto the snow drift, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.