LAX00LA056

The aircraft veered off the runway while landing in a crosswind and collided with an airport sign and a berm. The pilot was on her first unsupervised solo flight in a tail wheel airplane. She had just completed over 7 hours of flight instruction in the accident airplane. The pilot had departed runway 7 and was going to practice touch and go's. The flight instructor, who witnessed the accident, said her approach to landing appeared very normal and the level off and flare to touchdown appeared normal. Upon touchdown and rollout, the flight instructor noticed the airplane's right wing rise and it appeared the pilot performed corrective inputs to lower it. He said he then noticed the airplane turn slightly to the right and watched the right wing rise again, followed immediately by the airplane veering sharply to the left. The pilot said she noticed the windsock as she exited the airplane and it showed the wind was 90 degrees to the runway from approximately 160 degrees.

On December 26, 1999, at 1120 hours Pacific standard time, a Champion 7ECA, N8395V, ground looped and collided with a runway sign while landing at the Oxnard, California, airport. The airplane, operated by the owner's daughter under 14 CFR Part 91, sustained substantial damage. The private pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The pilot did not file a visual flight rules flight plan for the local area flight. The airplane departed Oxnard at 1115, and was staying in the traffic pattern for practice landings. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.

The flight instructor said he provided instruction to the pilot, including ground handling of the airplane, taxiing a tail wheel airplane, wheel and three point takeoffs and landings, and other maneuvers. He said the pilot was showing satisfactory improvement with each lesson, and was demonstrating positive control of the airplane in all facets of flight. On the date of the accident, he flew with the pilot for about 2 hours. About 1100, the flight instructor said that they stopped at the transient parking area and went into the terminal to review her training. The pilot said she was quite comfortable operating the airplane and the instructor signed her logbook with the tail wheel endorsement. He said she had received 7.3 hours of instruction from him in the conventional gear airplane, performing a total of 30 landings.

The pilot then went back out to the airplane and took off, flew around the pattern, and made a normal approach. The instructor said the touchdown appeared "ok," but that the pilot encountered a wind gust, lost control of the airplane, and ground looped off runway 07 and subsequently struck a distance remaining sign. The airplane continued northbound until it hit a small dirt berm, which caused the landing gear to collapse and the propeller to strike the ground.

The pilot said that she made a normal left closed pattern at 1,000 feet msl, which was the pattern altitude. She made the normal final approach and flared at the approach end of runway 7. Her right wingtip was slightly down at this point because the wind was coming from the east, approximately 110 degrees at 10 to 15 knots. She was using right aileron and left rudder to keep the plane straight and the right wing down. She had the stick all the way back and the airplane stalled as it touched the runway. Just after contact with the runway, the right wingtip went down and the airplane continued towards the right. She attempted to correct the rightward movement by putting in some left rudder.

The pilot said a second and stronger gust of wind hit the airplane, lifting the right wing again, and turning the airplane to the left. At this point, she applied full power, right rudder, and attempted a go-around. When the airplane continued its turn to the left, she cut the power, and applied brakes and right rudder. The airplane went off the runway and subsequently the elevator hit a distance remaining sign. The airplane came to rest at the upward sloping edge of the fence that surrounds the airport. Upon exiting the airplane, the pilot looked at the windsock and it showed the wind was 90 degrees to the runway from approximately 160 degrees.