20160318007489I

On March 18, 2016, it was reported a Cessna 182, registration number N6251A, was forced to return to kpou shortly after take off due what he believed was an autopilot problem. During the attempt to land, the aircraft ballooned on touchdown on runway 33. The subsequent hard landing as a result of the ballooning of the aircraft resulted in damage to the left main landing gear, the fuselage skin, and a propeller strike.

According to the pilot, these are the events leading up to the hard landing. The pilot stated that he completed the normal ?before takeoff? Procedures on the tarmac which also included a check to see if the autopilot could be disengaged. The pilot stated that after this, he was cleared for takeoff on runway 33. According to the pilot, it was a windy day with gusts slightly to the left of the nose of the aircraft which he stated he compensated accordingly. The pilot stated that that he first noticed there was a problem when he rotated during takeoff. He stated that the aircraft responded a little later than usual with 10 degrees of flaps. Around 100 feet or so, according to the pilot, he noticed the aircraft was not gaining much altitude. This is when he tried pulling back on the control wheel but felt lots of resistance. According to the pilot, he glanced at the automatic flight control system (afcs) status box to make sure the autopilot was not on, and he confirmed it was off. The pilot stated he tried using the manual electric trim switch to bring the nose up to no avail. According to the pilot, he glanced down at the trim wheel to ensure that it was not turning. The pilot stated that he thinks he saw a brief afcs failure on the garmin G1000(an integrated flight instrument system), but wasn?t sure. At this point, the pilot called the tower and told them that he was experiencing problems with the autopilot and wanted to return. The tower cleared him to land on runway 33, left downwind. According to the pilot, during his return to land he began pressing all the buttons on the afcs to see if it would reset and relieve the pressure on the yoke because he thought the autopilot was the problem but this did not work so he tried to use the trim wheel itself to bring the nose up but that did not work either. The pilot stated his final step in trying to correct the issue was pulling the ap circuit breaker which was not effective. The pilot stated he decided to focus all of his attention on landing while fighting the control yoke. According to the pilot, he believes he encountered a couple of wind shears on left base when the aircraft was pointing to the ground. Because the pilot was using both arms to control the yoke, he was not able to get the power down until turn to final. The pilot stated that he managed to touch down with a bounce but still at a higher speed than normal, and farther than normal down the runway as well. This caused the aircraft to bounce with the nose up considerably. According to the pilot, he thinks that there was a wind gust that pushed the nose back down causing the prop the strike the ground. The pilot also stated that he noticed pieces of nose fairing on the runway as well.