20140810015479A

Summary

In the afternoon of Sunday August 10th, 2014, super cub N8979D nosed over and came to a rest upside down after landing on a gravel bar. The aircraft sustained substantial damage, including damage to the vertical stabilizer, rudder, wings, propeller, engine, and windscreen. Of the two occupants, the flight instructor was uninjured and the student sustained an injury. Part of the top digit on the student?s left hand was severed by the impact.

Narrative

As they departed Talkeetna, the student was under the impression that they were headed back to the lake hood strip. On the way, the instructor saw another gravel bar on the susitna river and instructed the student to do three passes and land. They completed three passes and landed on the fourth. The instructor stated that the student was ?a little hot and tight? On the third pass, so they executed a go-around. The student was instructed to fly a longer final at 60 knots for the 4th pass. The student did this, and the instructor estimated that the gravel bar was 1600 feet long. He estimated that the student touched down 300 feet from the water and rolled about 300 feet before the aircraft suddenly lurched forward and flipped over with approximately 800-1000 feet of gravel remaining. In response to the sudden pitch moment, the instructor pulled back on the stick and added a bump of power in an attempt to keep the nose up. The instructor stated, ?it felt like the wheels hit a log and flipped the airplane over, it was that sudden.?

The student stated that he had seen a large bush on the right and the aircraft hit a rock and bounced. As the aircraft touched down from the first bounce, the student said that he heard the tires scrape the gravel and the aircraft bounced again. As the aircraft came down from the second bounce, the student felt that the brakes were locked. He felt that the tail was rising and that the pitch moment would flip the aircraft forward. He grabbed the bar against the window with his left hand and the aircraft flipped over the front end and landed upside down.

The instructor did not think that the aircraft had bounced, and he also did not feel that it had veered to the left. He stated that the wheel tracks in the gravel were continuous, and that the last eight feet of track were darker and deeper.

The instructor stated that he had not used any brakes at all during the accident sequence. He assumed that the student had locked the brakes but couldn?t tell what he was doing because he (the student) may have been wearing cowboy boots with heels. The instructor also noted that he had his hand on the stick during the student?s landing, and that he would have known if the student pushed forward on the stick. He did not.

The accident removed most of the top digit from the middle finger on the student?s left hand. The instructor helped the student wrap the injury then he called the aircraft owner. The student?s friend arrived in his aircraft, and the owner arrived with his son in another aircraft. The group flipped the accident aircraft back over to assess the damage and see if they could fly it home. It was determined that they could not.

The aircraft owner stated that damage included leading edge and rib damage to the left wing, damage to the propeller, engine cowl, rudder, vertical stabilizer, left strut, an engine mount, and the right side door post.