- Date
- January 13, 2002, 15:15 local (22:15 UTC)
- Place
- Grand Junction, CO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N382XMaule M-5-235C
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report January 16, 2003
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration
- FAA report
- 20020113002289A
- Case key
- 54036
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 failure of the tail wheel left steering cable. A contributing factor was the pilot's loss of aircraft control (not possible) and the subsequent inadvertent ground loop.
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 pilot said that during a touch and go landing, he heard a "bang." The left rudder pedal went to the floor, and the airplane ground looped to the right. The left wing was bent up for the outboard 12 feet of the wing. Postaccident examination of the airplane's left tail wheel steering cable revealed that a swaged attachment had separated.
Factual narrative
On January 13, 2002, at approximately 1515 mountain standard time, a Maule M-5-235C, N382X, was substantially damaged during a ground loop on landing roll at Grand Junction, Colorado. The commercial pilot, the sole occupant in the airplane, was not injured. The pilot was operating the airplane under Title 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local flight which had originated approximately 45 minutes before the accident. The pilot had not filed a flight plan.
The pilot said that during a touch and go landing, he heard a "bang." The left rudder pedal went to the floor, and the airplane ground looped to the right. The left wing was bent up for the outboard 12 feet of the wing. Postaccident examination of the airplane's left tail wheel steering cable revealed that a swaged attachment had separated.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N382X
- Reported as
- Maule M-5-235C
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 7021C
- Airframe hours
- 1,664
- Engine
- Lycoming O-540, 235 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Dwain P. Watson
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 15, 2001 · 35 hours before
- Departed
- GJT · Grand Junction, CO
- Airport
- GJT · Walker Field, runway 29, 10,501 × 150 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
- 46
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2
- Last flight review
- January 17, 2001
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 1,361 total · 652 in this make and model · 1,194 as pilot in command · 36 in the last 90 days · 6 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 290° at 16 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 43 °F, dew point 12 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.05 inHg
- Observed at
- GJT
Docket · 1
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 7, 2002, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 269 KB 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.