CAA accident report summary: PA-28-280
Date of accident: January 3 2001
Time of accident: 0700Z
Aircraft registration: ZS-CBB
Type Of aircraft: PA-28-180
Pilot-in-command licence type: Private
Pilot-in-command flying experience: Total Flying Hours: 112
Hours on Type: 68
Last point of daparture: Runway 22 Witbank aerodrome
Next point of intended landing: Witbank aerodrome
Location of the accident site: To the east of Runway 22 Witbank aerodrome
Meteorological information: CAVOK wind direction and speed: 090°/10-15 Knots
Number of people on board: 1+3
Number of people injured: 0
Number of people killed: 0
Synopsis
The private pilot was accompanied by three passengers on a local flight in the Witbank region. Both fuel tanks were filled to capacity prior to departure.
10° of flap was selected for take-off. According to the pilot, engine performance was normal during the run-up checks but shortly after take-off, while at a height of approximately 20ft, he experienced a loss in power and the aircraft started descending.
The pilot banked to the left and did a forced landing in the grass adjacent to the runway. Only minor damage was caused to the left-hand wing tip and no injuries were sustained.
An AMO subsequently inspected the aircraft and found no defects. No water or any other contaminants were found in either of the aircraft’s fuel tanks nor in the fuel strainer. The operation of the electric fuel pump was checked and found satisfactory.
Taking the tail wind component, weight of the aircraft and the relatively limited experience of the pilot into account, it is very likely that the pilot attempted to fly the aircraft outside of it’s performance envelope. This could have prevented the aircraft from gaining height after take-off and to remain close to the ground in ground effect.
Probable Cause
The cause of the incident could not be determined with certainty and therefore remains undetermined.
Jim’s analysis
This is interesting because it is what I would classify as the typical low-hour PPL accident.
Of course there is no such thing. What I mean is that the pilot didn’t do anything criminally “wrong”. He did not choose to do something idiotic like being a cowboy, or flying after boozing, or sticking his nose into silly weather, or doing a beat-up, or low-level aerobatics, or low flying, or running out of fuel, or any of the things that pilots do when they think thy are pretty smart.
What he did do was allow a whole bunch of little things gang up against him to the extent where his decision to take off was indeed a poor choice. So he really chose to crash by making a whole bunch of little pro-crash choises each of which may not have been too serious on its own. Here are the things that he stacked up against him.
He filled both tanks to capacity when he was just going on a local flight. In other words he chose to carry the weight of five hour’s fuel (136kg) instead of say two hours - one hour for the flight and one hour reserve - (54kg). So he was carrying around the equivilent of another 82kg passenger. On top of the four he already has in the cabin. Even if the aircraft wasn‘t leagally overloaded it was certainly too heavy for the prevailing conditions.
Witbank is 5,078’ amsl, which knocks the hell out of your takeoff performance. However at 9am in the middle of summer the density altitude there will be between 7,000’ and 8,000’ so we are really putting the takeoff under strain.
Now let’s look at this tailwind. In fact, here the pilot knowingly made a bad choice. He decided to take off with a tailwind that could have been up to 15kts. (The summary block says 10-15kts and the text says, and 6-10kts.) To take off with a tailwind that could reach 15kts is lunacy. Apart from making the takeoff run ridiculuously long, it means that if you hit anything you will be travelling 55km/hr faster than necessary. This extra speed alone is more than enough to kill you.
Finally, we have a bit of poor technique. Why on earth did the pilot bank to the left and land in the grass adjacent to the runway? Why not land on the runway? I suspect that he was doing what-low hour pilots do - he wasn’t using enough right rudder to counteract the turning effects of power.
What can we learn?
• A whole flock of small bad choices can cause just as much trouble as one big one.
• Don’t cut corners - good pilots do everything right. This guy knew the aircraft was a lot heavier than it needed to be. He knew how density altitude could mess with his takeoff. He knew that it is goofy to take off with a tailwind. He obviously didn’t know that these things would all combine to form a lethal mix that could easily have killed them all.
Jim Davis has 15,000 hours of immensely varied flying experience,
including 10,000 hours civil and military flying instruction. He is an
established author, his current projects being an instructors’ manual
and a collection of Air Accident analyses, called Choose Not To Crash. Visit Jim's website by clicking here.
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