19990910026189A

(.19) On September 6, 1999, about 1400 Alaska daylight time, a Cessna 182 airplane, N1881X, sustained substantial damage when it collided with terrain during the takeoff roll from an off airport gravel bar about 27 miles southeast of nikolai, Alaska, at 62 degrees 40.83 minutes north latitude, 153 degrees 47.24 minutes west longitude. The private pilot was not injured. The flight was being conducted under 14 CFR part 91 as a personal flight in support of the pilot's hunting camp. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, and no flight plan was filed. According to the Alaska state trooper's report, a friend of the pilot told an Alaska state trooper at the accident site on September 7, that the pilot crashed attempting to takeoff with buffalo meat from a successful hunt. He told the trooper that the pilot mentioned something about the wind stopping and the sun getting in his eyes during his takeoff attempt. The friend told the trooper that the crash occurred sometime after lunch, but before dinner, on September 6. The trooper examined the accident site, and noted that the airplane was on the smaller of two gravel islands in the kuskokwim river. Th e larger island had a takeoff area marked with flags, and had fuel jugs on it. The larger island had a set of three tire tracks that ended at the water's edge closest to the smaller island. The river was about 75 feet wide between the two islands, and the trooper said the water depth would have required hip boots to walk between the two islands. The trooper also told the iic the edge of the water channel dropped off abruptly. The trooper described tire tracks between the edge of the water and the airplane on the smaller island. The airplane was about 200 feet beyond the water separating the two islands. When the NTSB investigator-in-charge interviewed the pilot on September 16, he stated that he was taxiing to get fuel, and taxied into a rut. When asked how the airplane got onto the small island, he replied that he landed it there, and the damage occurred during taxi on the small island. The NTSB iic asked the pilot who transported the accident pilot to a location where he could arrange for repairs, how the airplane got onto the smaller bar. He said the pilot taxied it across the river when the water level was low, and the river rose after the accident. (-23) aircraft landed on rwy 33, nose gear started to shimmy pilot applied brakes, shimmy occurred again, nose gear attachment to aircraft structure failed. Firewall sustained substantial damage. (.4) the private pilot, who was also a mechanic with an inspection authorization, was landing the airplane from a ferry flight after the airplane had been involved in a previous accident (see ANC99LA155). The pilot/mechanic said that immediately after touchdown, the nose wheel began to vibrate. The nose gear assembly collapsed, and the engine firewall to which the temporary nose gear assembly had been attached, sustained substantial damage. Inspection by an FAA airworthiness inspector revealed that a nose landing gear assembly from an earlier model Cessna 182 had been installed without a shimmy damper, and without provision for connection to the steering bungees. A doubler had been installed on the previously damaged firewall to provide mounting structure for the nose gear assembly. A review of photographs taken at the first accident site revealed that substantial damage to the left wing, left horizontal stabilizer and left elevator (including missing the outbo ard 4 inches of elevator, and the left elevator tip counterweight), tail cone and empennage, and lower engine cowling existed prior to the ferry flight. The FAA issued a ferry permit for the airplane but did not inspect the airplane, nor verify the extent of damage which existed prior to the flight occurring. The airplane had received its last annual inspection on July 18, 1997, 26 months before the first accident.