20150316010559A

On Monday, March 16, 2015, N1952E, a Cessna model 340A went off the end of runway 26 at Butler county airport, Butler, PA, and came to rest at the bottom of the runway embankment after traveling approximately 300 yards.

The pilot, the sole occupant, was uninjured. Inspection at the scene revealed that both left and right propeller blades were bent back, the right wing tip tank and wing were damaged, and the nose gear fork and wheel assembly were detached from the nose gear. The pilot was interviewed and he stated that he was not intending to fly but wanted to high speed taxi the aircraft on the runway only. He stated that he would normally pull the power back at mid-field during the high speed taxi, but on this run he noticed a 10% difference in power as well as a gust of wind. While correcting for wind and determining the difference in power (which occurred at approximately 70 knots) he became fixated on the power gages and pulled the power back after he was past the mid-field point which was too late. The pilot stated that the accelerate / stop distance was 1000 feet greater than needed for that runway. He also stated that he positioned the nose trim full down to prevent premature takeoff. The pilot stated that there was no procedure he knew of for a high speed taxi and that his mechanic told him to perform these high speed taxis. The pilot stated that he was above 100 knots prior to pulling the power to idle. The pilot stated that he applied brakes and went into the grass slowing to approximately 25-30 knots before going over the embankment at the end of the runway.