Pilot Debrief

SPERLING RICHARD G LANCAIR 360 near The Dalles, OR — 2016-08-01

Final reportWPR16FA154
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Date
2016-08-01
Location
The Dalles, OR, USA
Airport
DLS
Aircraft
SPERLING RICHARD G LANCAIR 360
Registration
N528HZ
Category
Airplane
Highest injury
Fatal
Fatalities
1
Phase of flight
Landing

Probable cause

The pilot's loss of control during an aborted landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to extend the landing gear before touchdown.

Contributing factors

Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to extend the landing gear before touchdown.

NTSB narrative

The private pilot was landing the airplane on runway 31 in visual meteorological conditions when witnesses observed the airplane in a nose-low, steep-left-bank attitude west of the runway over grassy terrain. A second later, the airplane impacted the terrain. An examination of the accident site revealed propeller slash marks about 1,800 ft from the approach end of runway 31. The initial point of a 200-foot-long debris path was located 385 ft from the slash marks on a 235° magnetic heading, and the airplane came to rest upright at the end of the debris path with its nose oriented northeast. During the wreckage recovery, both main and the nose landing gear were found in a retracted position. During the postaccident examination, the throttle, mixture and propeller control levers were observed positioned full forward. The left and right main landing gear doors and the fuselage bottom skin exhibited numerous scratches and paint transfer consistent with the airplane's lower surface contacting the runway with the landing gear retracted. Both propeller blade tips were bent and curled aft, and the blades displayed numerous span-wise scratches from about mid span to the blade tips consistent with the propeller blades contacting the runway. The examination revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical failures or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that, during the landing sequence, the pilot realized that the landing gear was retracted and aborted the landing by adding full power. During the aborted landing, the pilot did not maintain control of the airplane, which rolled to the left and impacted terrain.

Analysis

Primary failure mode
Loss of control
First missed decision gate
Pilot could have aborted landing when the aircraft was in a nose-low attitude.

NTSB coding

Evidence available

  • 4 docket documents
View NTSB final reportView NTSB docket

Docket documents4

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