Two walk away from small plane crash

[y_p_w]

Apaprently the local fire department showed up and they declined any medical treatment.

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/2-...cle_4e909e00-e754-11ef-83ac-a78282d505e4.html

That'll buff right out.

 

[Jdeere562]

Apaprently the local fire department showed up and they declined any medical treatment.

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/2-...cle_4e909e00-e754-11ef-83ac-a78282d505e4.html

That'll buff right out.

Someone will be cleaning from the headliner of that plane.

 

[jetman]

any landing you can walk away from
is a good landing

 

[MRC01]

any landing you can walk away from
is a good landing

And if the airplane can be flown again without repairs, it is a great landing.
That was a good landing but not a great landing.

 

[Wrenchturner44]

As I have heard said many times, "the most dangerous times of fixed wing flight are takeoffs and landings, and in the case of rotorcraft flight.....staying out of "dead man's curve" of the height velocity diagram for said aircraft.

 

[jetman]

And if the airplane can be flown again without repairs,

oh yeh, there's that too

 

[wwillson]

It appears to be a PA28181. I have several hundred hours in that model. It's a great flying airplane. It would appear that the nose wheel caught in the mud causing the airplane to flip over. The greasy side is no longer down... Too bad.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Glad they're ok

 

[wwillson]

the most dangerous times of fixed wing flight are takeoffs and landings

The closer you get to the ground the more interesting it gets. Statistically speaking, takeoff is the most dangerous segment of flight.

 

[oldcodger]

Seriously, is that plane repairable?

 

[wwillson]

Seriously, is that plane repairable?

99.9% no. The propeller and engine are junk, because of the prop strike. There is major bendage to fuselage, wings, tail, and engine cowling. The firewall is also probably bent. The cost to repair would be so expensive that this airplane's flying days are over. It will almost certainly be scrapped.

 

[MRC01]

Flipping like this is not inevitable when landing on soft terrain. The technique is to come in slow which also means nose high. After the mains touch down, let the nose wheel down gently and maintain full back elevator. By the time the nose wheel comes down the plane is going slow enough, even if the nose wheel digs in and collapses there's not enough energy to flip the plane over.

This pilot clearly didn't land here intentionally, which means he had other problems he was dealing with. When in-flight emergencies happen, the pilot's primary job is to protect the people on board - which he did. So my comments are not criticism of the pilot, but just for general info.

 

[JimPghPA]

The flaps were down ( up now that it's over lol ) so apparently the pilot was trying to bring it in for a slow touchdown.

That soil looks to be very soft, so when the nose wheel touched it likely sank on a lot.

 

[Pablo]

So anyone blaming the FAA and up yet?

 

[wwillson]

The flaps were down

The flaps now appear to be partially extended not fully. The PA28181 has a mechanical flap lever on the floor between the front seats, which locks the flaps into the selected position. You have to push the thumb button in on the end of the handle to lower the flaps. If we assume the flaps remained in the selected position, then the pilot made a mistake. Proper soft field technique is to land as slow as possible with full flaps. Full flaps gives you maximum lift so you can float in ground effect as long as possible and land slowly and softly. If this pilot only selected the first 'notch' of flaps, then got distracted and touched down without full flaps, then the ground speed would be considerably higher. If the pilot relaxed the full back pressure on the elevator, then that's another mistake. The purpose of full elevator up is to keep as much weight off of the nose wheel as possible, so it doesn't dig in and flip the airplane over, that clearly happened here. Even taxiing on soft surfaces requires full elevator up to reduce weight on the nose wheel. If they landed into the wind and used the proper technique, it's possible to keep the nose wheel almost completely off the ground until much slower than stall speed.

 

[Taildragger]

Looks to have aftermarket wing tips and 'cuffed' leading edges. Not sure if it's a PA28-180 or PA-28-181, kinda looks like a Hersey bar wing. Agreed that the second notch of flaps should have been deployed, but when the doo-doo hits the fan, all bets are off.

 

[wwillson]

Looks to have aftermarket wing tips and 'cuffed' leading edges.

The wing tips are definitely STC add-ons. The standard 181 wing has a slight droop at the leading edge. The 180 wing was the heresy bar and had no leading or trailing edge taper or leading edge droop, it was square.

Not sure if it's a PA28-180 or PA-28-181, kinda looks like a Hersey bar wing.

100% 181

Agreed that the second notch of flaps should have been deployed

Third or full flaps. You want as much lift and as much drag as possible for a soft field landing.

Lots of interesting info comparing the 180 wing to the 181 wing:

https://charles-oneill.com/blog/cherokee-tapered-wing-float/

 

[Taildragger]

Well, we both missed it. N8535N is/was a PA-28-235D.

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

So anyone blaming the FAA and up yet?

Blame climate change.

Ground was too soft, softer than usual

 

[wwillson]

Well, we both missed it. N8535N is/was a PA-28-235D.

Good catch. Same wing as a PA28181, but with a Lycoming O-540 six cylinder. Better known as a Dakota. Another really great flying airplane.