- Date
- August 26, 1997, 15:10 local (21:10 UTC)
- Place
- Gillette, WY
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N354FFairchild Heli-Porter PC6/B2-H2
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report February 2, 1998
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19970826023959A
- Case key
- 20329
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
Failure by the pilot in command to follow procedures and retrim the stabilizer for 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
On returning to land, following dropping a load of skydivers, the pilot failed to reset the stabilizer trim and ran out of elevator during the flare for landing. A hard landing occurred and the left main landing gear collapsed causing substantial damage to the underside of the fuselage.
Factual narrative
On August 26, 1997, at 1510 mountain daylight time, a Fairchild Heli Porter, N354F, sustained substantial damage during a hard landing at Gillette, Wyoming. The commercial pilot was not injured. The flight was being operated under Title 14 CFR Part 91 as a local area flight and no flight plan was filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed.
According to the pilot, he had dropped a load of sky divers and on return to land he forgot to retrim the stabilizer during approach and ran out of elevator control during the flare for landing. The landing was hard and the left main landing gear collapsed. The underside of the fuselage skin, ribs, and stringers sustained damage when the landing gear collapsed.
The flight was operating at the race track complex in Gillette.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N354F
- Reported as
- Fairchild Heli-Porter PC6/B2-H2
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 2010
- Airframe hours
- 8,662
- Engine
- P&W PT-6/27, 550 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Other work use · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Tom Dolphin
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · August 22, 1997 · 18 hours before
- Departed
- GCC
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
- 42
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 2,100 total · 80 in this make and model · 1,930 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 6,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 90 °F, dew point 55 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- GCC, 4 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.