- Date
- September 13, 2024, 16:30 local (20:30 UTC)
- Place
- Williamsburg, VA · On Airport
- Injuries
- 1 minor
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N65RWWalden Robert Vans Aircraft RV-7A
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20240913013069A
- Case key
- 195130
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 decision to continue with an unstabilized approach which resulted in a hard landing and loss of directional control during a subsequent landing.
Findings · 3
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 pilot was attempting to land on a 60-ft-wide runway with a 10 to 15 knot left crosswind. He described that he was too high on the approach and made an aggressive right-wing low forward slip to lose altitude. While transitioning to complete the crosswind landing, the pilot misjudged his height above the runway and landed hard, damaging the nose landing gear. The airplane began to veer off the runway and the pilot aborted the landing. On the next landing, when the damaged nose landing gear touched down, the airplane veered off the runway, impacted a trench, and nosed over resulting in substantial damage to the right wing, vertical stabilizer, and rudder. Following the accident, the pilot stated that he should have gone around on the first landing attempt since he was not stabilized on the approach. He also reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N65RW
- Reported as
- Walden Robert Vans Aircraft RV-7A
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 72204
- Built
- 2012
- Engine
- Lycoming/MATTITUCK TMX IO-390, 210 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Departed
- FFC · Peachtree, GA
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- JGG · Williamsburg/Jamestown, runway 13/31, 3,204 × 60 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Unknown
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
- 72
- Injuries
- Minor
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Flight engineer, Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- August 29, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 5-point
- Flight hours
- 22,000 total · 1,600 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Variable at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 22,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 70 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.14 inHg
- Observed at
- KJGG, 37 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KJGG 132035Z AUTO VRB03KT 10SM SCT024 OVC220 26/21 A3014
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on January 21, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 578 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.