The pilot reported that, while on short final to an airport near Fort Worth, Texas, the Zenith CH801 rolled about 30º to the left when it was about 50 feet above the ground.
He applied full right aileron and leveled the plane a couple feet above the ground, but the plane descended on to the runway, exited the runway to the left, and hit terrain.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to both the wings and fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The automated weather observation station on an airport about 5 nm away reported that, about 15 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 050° at 16 knots. The pilot reported the wind was 050º at 10 knots, gusting up to 20 knots. The pilot landed on Runway 25.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain lateral control in flight and his subsequent loss of directional control during landing with a crosswind, which resulted in a runway excursion and impact with terrain.
This pilot was confused or made a poor choice and landed with a significant tailwind! This can easily cause perceptual, airpeed and control issues on landing. Was habit of “usual runway” an issue here?
This April 2019 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Tailwind components can be deceptive, especially on short final where,because of wind gradient, the A/S will tend to increase rather than decrease, as with a headwind component.
It sounds more like he was landing with a gusty tail wind and stalled it rolling off to the left. The cross wind component on a RWY 25 (WSW) landing with a 050 (ESE) wind direction is small. Landing by visual reference with a tail wind can be hard to gauge airspeed by looking at the ground rushing by.
Agree. Generally speculating, approaching with a tailwind could result in the pilot getting slower than the recommended approach speed attempting to establish a normal looking ground speed as you say. In addition, a gust from the rear could further reduce the relative wind across the wing from leading edge to trailing edge and stall the wing.
The best approach to a tailwind landing is not to do it, especially in a tail dragger. In doing so elevator and rudder movement will be slightly lighter leaving a tending to over control and difficult to judge approach speed potentially causing an early attempt to stall too high.