CHI96LA317

Shortly after climb out on an IFR flight plan, the pilot realized that he had a landing gear problem. He diverted to a nearby airport and made a fly-by past the tower. Tower personnel advised him that his nose gear was partially extended. On final approach for landing, the pilot shut off the engine to make a dead stick landing to avoid damaging the airplane. The airplane touched down on terrain 200 yards short of the runway threshold. Examination of the airplane revealed a fractured nose wheel shimmy damper attaching collar.

On August 26, 1996, at 1545 central daylight time (cdt), a Piper PA-32R-301, N801SP, registered to Moccasin Flying Club, Inc., of Chattanooga, Tennessee, operated by an instrument rated private pilot, was substantially damaged when it undershot a power off landing at the Rochester Municipal Airport, Rochester, Minnesota. The airplane landed approximately 1/4 mile away from runway 02 threshold. The pilot reported a problem with the nose gear in the partially extended position, and elected to make a power off dead stick landing. The private pilot reported serious injuries. The 14 CFR Part 91 flight was operating in visual meteorological conditions. An IFR flight plan was on file. The flight originated from St. Paul, Minnesota, at 1300 cdt with a planned destination of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

According to the pilot's written statement, he noticed on climb out that his rate of climb was slower than usual. As the airplane reach its cruising altitude of 7000 feet msl, the indicated airspeed also was slower than usual. He suspected that one of the landing gear was not up and locked. He cycled the gear and changed the landing gear indicator light bulbs. The red emergency gear lever was activated with no change in the situation. The pilot than decided to divert to Rochester Municipal Airport to conduct a fly by of the tower to assess the problem. After flying the ILS approach, Rochester Tower advised him that his nose gear was only partially extended. After flying in the area trying positive G maneuvers, nothing seemed to work. He decided to attempt a landing. The pilot flew the VOR approach to runway 02. He stated "On very short final, [he] shut down everything in an attempt to save the engine and prevent a possible fire. [he] landed in a field, some 200 yards short of the runway."

A Federal Aviation Administration Inspector interviewed the pilot and obtained the following statement. The pilot decided he wanted to save the airplane so he was going to shut off the engine on final. The pilot requested information from the tower on the glide ratio in his configuration, but they did not provide any information. He said he was nervous landing on the short runway. He also decided that he wanted to get down and stopped in the first 1/3 of the runway so he would not block the other runway and cause the airport to be closed. He said he shut the engine off on what he thought was short final. He did not remember the DME distance but he thought he was at 1300' msl. When he saw he would not make it, he decided to try to restart. As he saw the airspeed start to decay, he pushed the nose down to keep the speed at 80 knots. The pilot then pulled back to cushion the blow by leveling the airplane. At that point he said the airplane quit flying.

Examination of the airplane by the FAA Inspector revealed a fractured nose wheel shimmy damper attachment collar.