- Date
- September 28, 1994, 11:45 local (17:45 UTC)
- Place
- Cortez, CO
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N9ZGCessna 182N
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 9, 1995
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19940928032179A
- Case key
- 19174
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 improper recovery from a bounced landing.
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 was conducting a touch-and-go landing while on a student solo cross country flight. He landed hard and bounced. On the third touch down, the nose gear sheared off the aircraft.
Factual narrative
On September 28, 1994, at 1145 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 182N, N9ZG, landed hard at Cortez-Montezuma County Airport, Cortez, Colorado. The pilot was not injured and the aircraft sustained substantial damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and a VFR flight plan was filed.
The flight was a student solo cross country which originated earlier in the day from Grand Junction, Colorado, with the first leg to Farmington, New Mexico. After a short break in Farmington, the flight departed for the return trip to Grand Junction with a touch-and-go planned at Cortez, Colorado.
According to the pilot, when landing at Cortez, he flared high and the firsttouch down was hard. The second touchdown was more firm and the pilot said he added some power for the third touchdown as the stall warning horn had sounded. On the third touchdown, the nose wheel sheared off and the aircraft slid to a stop on the runway.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9ZG
- Reported as
- Cessna 182N
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 18260568
- Airframe hours
- 5,078
- Engine
- Continental O-470-LCR, 230 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Kobayashi, Yuki, doing business as Strand Aviation
- Registered owner
- I Fly Strand Aviation, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 19, 1994 · 37 hours before
- Departed
- FMN · Farmington, NM
- Destination
- CEZ · CO
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- CEZ · Cortez-Montezuma County, runway 3, 7,105 × 100 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
- 40
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 64 total · 7 in this make and model · 20 as pilot in command · 16 in the last 90 days · 8 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 30 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 57 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.