SEA01LA136

The flight instructor, who was sitting in the right seat, was demonstrating his short-field landing technique to the owner of the aircraft. Just as the aircraft touched down, it encountered a dust devil/whirlwind. The rotational force imparted to the aircraft by the whirlwind made it hard to control at its low forward speed. The instructor pilot elected not to execute a go-around, and even with both rudder and differential brake application, he was not able to keep the aircraft from departing the side of the runway. After it departed the runway, the aircraft encountered soft, sandy terrain, and nosed over onto its back.

On July 19, 2001, approximately 1000 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna 180K, N64426, nosed over during the landing roll at Quincy Municipal Airport, Quincy, Washington. The certified flight instructor and his airline transport pilot rated student were not injured, but the aircraft, which was owned and operated by the student, sustained substantial damage. The 14 CFR Part 91 instructional flight, which departed Wenatchee, Washington, about 90 minutes prior to the accident, had been operating in the Quincy traffic pattern for about 10 minutes. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time. No flight plan had been filed. There was no report of an ELT activation.

According to the instructor, who was sitting in the right seat, he was demonstrating a short-field landing while the aircraft owner, who was in the left seat, observed. The aircraft reportedly touched down on the desired spot in a three-point attitude, tracking straight down the runway. Then, just after touchdown (1-2 seconds), the aircraft veered to the right "rather quickly," and the instructor aggressively applied left rudder. When he found that left full rudder did not stop the aircraft from veering further to the right, the pilot also applied left brake. According to the pilot, at that point in time, "Due to the speed of the event, adding power and getting out of the situation did not look like a prudent course of action." The aircraft continued to veer to the right, departed the runway, and encountered soft, sandy terrain. The pilot reported that when it rolled onto the soft terrain, even though he had the yoke full aft, the aircraft's main gear sank into the terrain and it nosed over onto its back.

Further discussions with the instructor pilot revealed that soon after the accident, he spotted a number of dust devils in the area. It was his opinion that the aircraft had encountered a whirlwind just as it touched down, and that because of the slow forward speed of the aircraft, the rotational forces created by the wind made the aircraft hard to control.

According to the FAA Operations Inspector who responded to the accident, there was no evidence of any malfunction in the aircraft's tailwheel steering system or main gear braking systems.