Auburn Municipal Airport: Auburn, Washington

Airport is located 2 miles north of Auburn, Washington.

The pilot reported that he made a normal approach and landing in the tail-wheel-equipped airplane. During the landing roll, the airplane veered to the left, exited the runway, and nosed over. Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the left and right wings, vertical stabilizer, and rudder sustained structural damage. The pilot stated that there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane's flight control systems or brake systems at the time of the accident. Updated at Mar 23 2010 5:08PM
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During the descent to the pilot's planned destination, the airplane's engine lost all power, and he was forced to make an emergency landing in a nearby open field. During the landing roll, the airplane impacted an irrigation pipe and nosed over onto its back. The nose over sequence resulted in the buckling of the fuselage and the crushing of the top one foot of the vertical stabilizer. A post-accident partial engine disassembly determined that the oil galley in the number four crankshaft connecting rod journal had became partially blocked by unidentified debris. That blockage resulted in insufficient lubrication of the number four connecting rod bearing, and the ultimate thermal destruction of the bearing. The destruction of the bearing resulted in direct contact between the connecting rod and the crankshaft journal, ultimately leading to the failure of the connecting rod cap due to thermal distress. The failure of the connecting rod cap resulted in the release of the connecting rod from the crankshaft journal, the internal failure of the engine, and the total loss of power.
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During the initial climb after take off, the airplane's engine lost power. The pilot said there was a motel and casino in front of him, so he performed a 90 degree left-hand turn. The pilot landed the airplane parallel to and inside the airport perimeter fence with the right wing sliding along the fence. The airplane landed hard on both main landing gear and they collapsed. Additionally the engine mounts were broken, the engine firewall was wrinkled, both wings exhibited buckling and wrinkling, and the fuselage was wrinkled. Post accident examination of the engine revealed that a large piece of neoprene was lodged in the engine's air intake. The pilot said that he and the mechanic fabricated a neoprene seal for the engine's air intake during the conditional inspection, which was completed on February 12, 2007. The airplane had flown 0.2 hours, out of conditional inspection, at the time of the accident.
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During the initial tail-wheel and refresher flight training, the left seat owner/pilot lost control of the airplane on the landing roll. The subsequent delayed remedial action by the right seat instructor pilot resulted in the airplane ground looping, causing substantial damage to the airplane.
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After taking off and determining that the landing gear would not retract properly, and believing that the gear was in the down and locked position, the pilot elected to proceed to the destination airport. After touching down and rolling out on the main landing gear wheels, the nose landing gear was then lowered onto the runway's surface. After the nose landing gear contacted the runway all three landing gear retracted. A post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that the landing gear retraction motor had separated from its rear bulkhead attachment. The component's rivets were fractured in the contact surface plane, with deformation and smeared features observed to be consistent with overstress. It could not be determined when the overstress event occurred.
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The pilot said that he noticed that the right clevis of the right tail wheel spring to the wheel's steering arm was starting to open several hours before a 10 hour maintenance inspection. The mechanic crimped the clevis during this inspection. After the inspection was completed, the pilot returned to his home airport and landed on runway 16 with a direct right crosswind of 5-10 knots. The pilot said that his landing was a normal right crosswind landing and the airplane rolled out normally for 200-300 yards. He said that the airplane started to turn right, and he applied full left rudder with no effect [a photograph of the accident scene showed a serpentine black skip mark approximately 20 feet to the left of the 75 foot wide runway center line]. The pilot said that the nose of the aircraft had started to swing sharply to the right before he could "think" of using differential braking. The airplane exited the right side of the runway and came to rest on its left wing tip, left main landing gear, and engine. The left wing and aileron were bent and wrinkled. Post accident examination of the tail wheel assembly revealed that the clevis which connected the right tail wheel spring to the wheel's steering arm was disconnected. It was not determined why the tail wheel shimmied during the landing roll. At the time of the accident, the pilot had approximately 99 hours of flight experience, with 23 hours in make and model.
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The pilot reported that after landing and taxiing off the runway, not using the brakes until the turn, the aircraft stopped past the hold short line. The pilot stated that after the aircraft stopped, he felt the aircraft settling to the left side. After shutting down the engine, the pilot exited the aircraft to find the left main landing gear collapsed and the left wing and left side horizontal stabilizer resting on the ground. An inspection of the aircraft by a Federal Aviation Administration Inspector from the Seattle, Washington, Flight Standards District Office found damage to the left hand wing pitot area and the structural leading edge front spar and lower leading edge spar cap and rib. Additional damage was noted to areas of the wing skin requiring a major repair.