The pilot reported that while performing a soft and short field takeoff, he allowed the Cessna 150 to drift left to avoid crawfish chimneys on the grass runway near Paris, Texas.
Crawfish chimneys are excavated soil created by burrowing crawfish.
Immediately after the wheels left the ground, the left wing hit a windsock.
The pilot continued to climb to about 30 feet above the ground when the left wing lost lift and began to turn towards nearby trees.
He elected to land. During the landing the nose gear dropped, dug into the soft ground, and collapsed. The airplane subsequently nosed over and came to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the rudder and the right wing, while the pilot sustained minor injuries.
The pilot told investigators he was aware of the crawfish chimneys and normally they would have been removed before the flight, but the tractor used for that purpose was not working.
He added he should not have flown until the runway was cleared and paid more attention to the airplane’s alignment on the runway.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s decision to takeoff with known obstacles on the runway and his subsequent failure to avoid the windsock on takeoff.
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This March 2021 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.
The accident was mine. Fault also mine but I did walk the runway prior to takeoff. There was a clear though doglegged path on firm enough ground for both takeoff and landing. The liftoff was executed per plan. My error was in thinking I had returned to the center of the runway at the end of the dogleg. The offending windsock is now 30′ away from the edge of the runway. I received no injuries, not even a bruise or scratch. My passenger had minor bruising. The noseover almost didn’t happen. It was quite slow. In retrospect I think that if I had not completely closed the throttle I might have had a successful landing. I’m pretty sure the aircraft completely stalled 10-15′ above the ground.
The summary says a grass runway NEAR Paris, TX (PRX). NTSB report indicates the accident occurred AT PRX. PRX doesn’t have a grass runway. Usually when you see those “chimney’s” the ground is wet and soft.
Hey… this sounds like a ‘first’ to my ears… Crawfish Chimneys… BUT my folks had a private ‘dirt** strip’ in the CA foothills [Ernst-Field ~20 Mi SE of Hemet-Ryan]… and it always amazed me how gopher and snake holes proliferated… along with tire-tracks, sandy soft-spots, rain-cuts/washes and vegetation-creep [weed-clusters], etc constantly changed the runway’s surface and character.
** Dirt = topsoil mixed with decomposing granite granules. The ‘drag’ was home-made wood-frame with angle-irons and a chains connecting with hooks to large holes the steel rea-bumper on a farm pick-up truck.
Operating single engine Cessna’s and Piper’s from the strip [no wheel pants] with ‘soft-field’ TO/landing procedures allowed for some tolerance and routine safe flying… but the RW still needed ‘dragging’ weekly… and holes shovel-filled.
BUT when my dad began flying his newly-minted homebuilt Thorp T18 ‘hot-rod’ [N455DT] from the strip, he carefully inspected… and usually ‘dragged the surface’… end-to end… to level/smooth the rough spots and weeds… and filled the various random holes that popped-up, BEFORE EVERY FLIGHT. The result was a much better surface for the long-term. IF dad & the T18 were gone for more than a couple of days, he would land at Hemet-Ryan, drive ‘home’, check/drag the RW surface… THEN go-back to H-R… and fly ‘DT’ home.
Then winter/rains snow/hit and he had to work-daily to keep the surface ‘good-enough’ for a single flight… or park for several days/weeks for WX… and then spend a several days restoring the surface.
The single accident that occurred [about 15-years after opening the ‘strip’] was when a friend’s homebuilt biplane that had engine failure on take-off… and plowed-into/cartwheeled in a rough farm-field off the end of the property. His friend was seriously injured and dad/firefighters had to work hard to extract him… and then the wreckage had to be removed after the NTSB was finished. The effect of this accident was very sobering/hard [traumatic] on dad… a WWII combat hardened MIL-pilot.
NOTE1. Mom was rarely pleased with his time/attention directed to ‘DT’ and the RW. Late in life, MOM finally admitted how the ‘2’ were a LOT more stressful on their long marriage that they would admit-to, at that time.
Conclusion: There is a LOT of real-work and direct-RESPONSIBILITY maintaining a good quality dirt [or grass] strip.
I like the line: “He elected to land.” He had a choice at that point?
How large is a crawfish chimney?
They can get up to a foot tall or so (usually shorter) but they’re very dense and hard to move.
Interesting. I didn’t know crawfish did that. I thought they lived underwater. Never too old to learn something new.