The pilot reported that he saw what appeared to be his intended runway at an airport near Denver and set up for landing. During the landing touchdown, he noticed that the Cessna 180 was difficult to control due to the soft soil.
As the airplane continued the rollout, it drifted about 20 feet off the pilot’s intended direction into softer soil. Just before the airplane came to a stop, the right tire sunk into the soft ground and the airplane nosed over, coming to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right-wing strut and vertical stabilizer.
After the accident, the pilot reported that he had not landed on his intended runway but on an unimproved dirt road about 0.3 miles from the runway that ran parallel to the road.
The pilot reported that he had spent too much time looking for traffic in the landing pattern and lost situational awareness of his position relative to the runway.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s loss of situational awareness, and his unintended landing on a soft unimproved dirt road, which resulted in a loss of directional control into soft ground and the airplane to subsequently nose over.
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This April 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.
So, this pilot wants to land on the turf runway, which is within 50 ft of the longer, paved runway…. and he doesn’t notice that there is no paved runway where he’s landing.?
If he got disoriented, why not climb out, away from the runway, and get re-oriented to the airport. ?
Exactly what Bibo said.
Swat eye say.
Mistakes can and do happen to anybody including airline captains. A major airline passenger jet east bound landed at State College airport on a runway exactly aligned with a runway at Port Columbus airport, Ohio several miles to the East. Quite embarrassing!
….and the value of all the remaining flyable Cessna 180s just ratcheted up a notch.
He should have to start over with flying school
Of course he should and paying the double the others learners do.