- Date
- August 29, 2009, 16:30 local (21:30 UTC)
- Place
- Abilene, KS
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N8312GCessna 150F
- Defining event
- Landing-landing roll: Aircraft structural failure
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 12, 2010
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA Flight Standards District Office
- FAA report
- 20090829016689A
- Case key
- 74633
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 inadequate crosswind landing technique, resulting in an excessive side load on the left landing gear that led to an overload failure of its axle.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The student pilot said that while landing the tailwheel-equipped airplane on runway 35 with a north-northeast wind of 8 mph, he failed to lower the right wing into the wind. The wind raised the right wing while he was using left rudder. The airplane swerved to the east and the left wheel broke off. The airplane then nosed down, buckling the firewall. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors who examined the airplane reported the left axle bore a fracture surface consistent with an overload failure.
Factual narrative
The student pilot said that while landing on runway 35 with a north-northeast wind of 8 mph, he failed to lower the right wing into the wind. The wind raised the right wing while he was using left rudder. The airplane swerved to the east and the left wheel broke off. The airplane then nosed down, buckling the firewall. The airplane was a Cessna 150F with a tailwheel conversion. FAA inspectors who examined the airplane reported the left axle bore a fracture surface consistent with an overload failure.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8312G
- Reported as
- Cessna 150F
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 15062412
- Airframe hours
- 4,431
- Engine
- Cont Motor 0-200 SERIES, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Estol L. Bathurst
- Registered owner
- Estol L. Bathurst
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 17, 2009 · 12 hours before
- Departed
- K78 · Abilene, KS
- Destination
- K78 · Abilene, KS
- Flight plan
- Unknown
- Airport
- K78 · Abilene Municipal, runway 35, 4,100 × 75 ft, asphalt
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
- 28
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 28 total · 22 in this make and model · 28 as pilot in command · 23 in the last 90 days · 12 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 20° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 7,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 72 °F, dew point 59 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.07 inHg
- Observed at
- SLN, 23 nm away
Docket · 8
The files NTSB released with the investigation on September 29, 2009, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.6 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N8312G · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.