The pilot told investigators that she bought the Cessna 172 in July 2021 and had not flown it recently.
The purpose of the flight was to reposition the airplane for an annual inspection.
She reported that the night before the accident she spent two hours “chair flying” in preparation for the flight.
The next day she departed from the local airport and completed one stop-and-go landing, which was completed without incident.
She then departed and flew to the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, and intended to land on the gravel strip.
During the landing flare, the plane “ballooned slightly” and it landed beyond the intended landing point.
Upon touchdown, she pushed the yoke forward and applied brakes, then the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and vertical stabilizer, while the pilot sustained minor injuries in the crash.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during landing.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This August 2022 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.
This video has a good explanation/demonstration of wheel landings, why stick forward is necessary, and what happens when the tail comes down too soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN6f48iHCho
Tailwheel 101. You don’t brake hard without holding the tail down. Our 170, which once graced cover of GAN, has remained upright for 20 years since.
Did I understand she was on a gravel runway? If so I would think pushing the yoke forward would also have a tendency to dig into the gravel?
Yoke forward is normally necessary on wheel landings to prevent the tail from descending too soon resulting in the airplane becoming airborne again. The braking would probably create more digging than the elevator. But too much of either or both, and the pitching down moment will go beyond the point of no return.
Funny looking Cessna 172. It has a tail wheel!
It’s a tail wheel conversion of an R172K, common in Alaska.
Taildragger, that’s probably why it endow’ed when she pushed the yoke forward. Wow, surely not a taildragger and the tricycle configuration should be light on the yoke.
That’s maybe why she crashed. She probably. Thought it was a 172. Taildrager also explains why she crashed. You have to be on your toes in those things and fly them often.
I met an F-15 pilot in a class one time. He hadn’t flown a glider since he was in Texas. He was up in my area, so I offered to take him up in a Blanik thinking that all he knew about gliders was flying in Texas sized monster thermals, unlike the little gopher fart thermals we have in Ohio. It was a weak day and I did my best to get us back to release altitude and was failing… He tried and proceed to give me a flying lesson. His technique was aggressive and abrupt, not smooth at all, but it worked. I leaned that day that a great pilot is a great pilot. One of the best flying lessons I ever had.
Had a couple fighter jocks, one F-18, the other A-10, bought a 100 hrsp Champ here and did not make it 350 feet down the runway before they lost control. Seems that they did not have much experience with the rudder. Different types of aircraft. They got some dual before they came back for it after repairs.
She pushed the yoke forward after landing? Well, okay, as long as she’s got the money to back it up…
And she was flying a taildragger,,,,,,my my
Her report makes no mention of obtaining a ferry permit for the airplane, which was out of annual by about 3 months, as I read it. It also appears that although she had plenty of recent fighter experience, she had very little experience in this tail-dragger converted 172.
That reminds me of a comment my first instructor, Dick Sharp, made back in 1972, at the Elmendorf AFB Aeroclub. One of his other students, Sarah, was the wife of an F4 pilot. We were both at about the same level of our student training, so sometimes our instructor would give us our preflight briefings together, then fly with one of us and then the other, then give us our post flight briefings together.
At one of our joint preflight briefings, Sarah expressed concern about something she had discussed with her husband, in which he had apparently disagreed with something Dick had taught us. Dick’s comment went something like this: “I don’t know anything about how to fly a fighter, but I do know how to fly a 150, and I do know how to teach you to fly a 150. They are two different airplanes, and I won’t presume to tell your husband how to fly the fighter. But I will tell you that he’s wrong about how to fly a 150.”
Sometimes the skills that we develop flying one airplane don’t transfer to flying another airplane. That’s an important lesson for all of us.
Without good tailwheel instruction this is what happens. Amazing how pilots egos get in their way of their skill level. Put the ego away and get competent.
The pilot report available by following the NTSB link is interesting. The accident pilot is an F35 pilot and instructor, with over 1000 hours of flight time, and the report is well written.
CM, RV pilot, Houston, TX
What did she do wrong?
It could be that the braking effect was better , vs the other airport.?
The option would be to let the aircraft settle, or ‘go around’ .
It is a 2,900 ft runway. Why rush to stop ? Maybe some military pilot pride damaged with a ‘long’ landing ?
Yes my instructor Jim Dotsun drilled it in me “Don’t make a bad situation worse” go around…
Tail wheel plane. push the yoke forward, lifting the tail, and hit the brakes. Now think of momentum and inertia. Where is the fulcrum and where is the weight. I’m not a tail wheel pilot, but I could see that coming. I would have held the yoke back to lift the nose while adding brakes. Meanwhile I would have cut the throttle. And if I noticed the nose moving down, I would have gotten off the brakes so the elevator pressures could pull the nose up.
If lowering the tail is rushed, the airplane will become airborne again. It has to be done in concert with the speed bleeding off.