- Date
- April 10, 2005, 14:30 local (22:30 UTC)
- Place
- Palmer, AK
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N8960CPiper PA-18
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 13, 2005
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- Parties
- FAA, Anchorage Flight Standards District Office
- FAA report
- 20050410006539A
- Case key
- 61287
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of an unsuitable landing site, which resulted in a loss of control and the airplane nosing over during the landing roll.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The private pilot was landing his tailwheel airplane on a rough and uneven gravel bar. He reported that the main landing gear wheels encountered a depression in the gravel bar during the landing roll, and he was unable to keep the airplane from nosing over and sustaining structural damage. He stated that there were no preaccident mechanical problems with the airplane.
Factual narrative
On April 10, 2005, about 1430 Alaska daylight time, a wheel-equipped Piper PA-18 airplane, N8960C, sustained substantial damage following a loss of control and nose over while landing at a remote, off-airport gravel bar in the Knik River, about 12 miles south-southeast of Palmer, Alaska. The private pilot/airplane owner and the sole passenger were not injured. The local, 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight operated without a flight plan in visual meteorological conditions. The flight departed Butte Muni airstrip, Palmer, about 1430.
During a telephone conversation with the NTSB investigator-in-charge on April 11, the pilot related that he was practicing touch and go landings on the gravel bar. He said on the accident landing, the main landing gear encountered a depression in the gravel bar, and he was unable to maintain control of the airplane and keep it from nosing over. He noted that the airplane received structural damage to the rudder, lift struts, and fuselage, and that there were no preaccident mechanical problems with the airplane.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8960C
- Reported as
- Piper PA-18
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 13-3261
- Airframe hours
- 5,968
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Daniel L. Cooper
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 1, 2004 · 52 hours before
- Departed
- AK1 · Palmer, AK
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 47
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- April 1, 2004
- Seat
- Front
- Flight hours
- 348 total · 103 in this make and model · 323 as pilot in command · 175 in the last 90 days · 7 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 85° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 40 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 39 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.