Flight Training - February 2015 - 26

ACCIDENT REPORT

Dan Namowitz

NO NEWS WAS BAD NEWS

AROW: This acronym reminds you
what must be on board the aircraft
before takeoff-airworthiness certficate, registration, operating limits,
and weight and balance calculations.

A THOROUGH PREFLIGHT IS IMPORTANT

A

s you probably recall from your own struggles in training,
learning to land the aircraft doesn't always come easily.
A trainer endures more than its share of flat touchdowns,
stalled drop-ins, bounced landings-and their evil relative,
porpoising-while students struggle to acquire proficiency.
Also, awkwardly performed ground
operations, such as harsh braking or side
loads imposed on landing gear when
directional control is lost, or when the
trainer is landed still crabbed into a
crosswind, offer still more examples of
how your trainer's structural components are put to the most severe kinds
of tests.
A hard landing can damage an aircraft
in multiple ways, but the aircraft may still
end up back out on the flight line, awaiting
the next renter.

"The airplane was returned for further
examination and during the second examination, substantial damage was noted to
the firewall from the first event."
It's worth noting that touch-and-go
landings are not universally prescribed for
a first solo-it is an event that demands
enough of a student pilot that some
instructors consider full-stop landings,
exiting the runway, and taxiing back for
another circuit to be a preferred, less
hectic formula.
If undetected damage that evades

A HARD LANDING CAN DAMAGE AN AIRCRAFT
IN MULTIPLE WAYS, BUT THE AIRCRAFT MAY
STILL END UP BACK OUT ON THE FLIGHT LINE,
AWAITING THE NEXT RENTER.
On February 3, 2014, both insult and
injury were inflicted on a trainer in Fort
Pierce, Florida, when a student pilot
performing touch-and-go landings on a
first solo in a Cessna 172 flared high on
the third landing, touched down hard,
and bounced.
"He then pitched the nose of the airplane up and the tail section struck the
runway prior to landing," said a National
Transportation Safety Board accident
summary.
The student pilot taxied off the runway and stopped. "A visual examination
revealed minor damage to the exterior of
the airplane," continued the NTSB report.
However, "The airplane was examined
by maintenance personnel for further
damage and released back into service."
It was another pilot using the aircraft on
a subsequent flight who found that the
flight controls were "difficult to manipulate," the NTSB report said.

26 /

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visual inspection is a hazard for the next
pilot scheduled to fly an aircraft, consider
the possible consequences of damage
never examined because it resulted from
a mishap that went unreported. When
the right main gear of a Piper PA-28-181
collapsed on rollout after an "uneventful"
instructional flight landed in gusty winds
on April 7, 2013, in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, bolt fatigue, wear, and looseness
came in for scrutiny and analysis.
"According to a representative from
the airplane manufacturer, he had seen
similar events in the past and such wear

usually involved airplanes used for
student pilot training," said the NTSB's
accident summary. "The airplanes would
suffer an initiating hard landing that was
not reported by the student pilot. The
damage could then propagate over time,
but it was difficult to tell if the initiating
hard landing occurred months or years
prior to the actual landing gear failure;
however, it was also common practice
for mechanics to check the bolts during
annual and 100-hour inspections."
The aircraft had flown about 51 hours
in the three months since the most recent
annual inspection, noted the NTSB,
attributing the accident to the probable
cause of "fatigue failure of the right main
landing gear attach bolts due to an
unreported hard landing at an unknown
time, and subsequent collapse of the
landing gear."
When does a hard landing become
hard enough-absent obvious damage-to
warrant mention to someone back at the
flight school? There's no magic formula.
Once a student pilot has moved up to
exercising unsupervised solo privileges, or
a renter-pilot has been handed the keys,
there's an implied presumption that such
an incident is unlikely.
But accident reports still commonly
involve "airplanes used for student
pilot training," so if you are going to fly
one, give it an extra careful look before
flying.
Dan Namowitz is an aviation writer and flight
instructor. He has been a pilot since 1985 and
an instructor since 1990.

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Flight Training - February 2015

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