 |
37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
A PA-18 pilot ground looped his aircraft and scraped a wing. The pilot admitted that his control inputs were not timely and conducted when the aircraft's airspeed was too low for airflow.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1203561 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201409 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | PA-18/19 Super Cub |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Landing |
| Flight Plan | None |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 90 Flight Crew Total 685 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control |
Narrative:
I went up for practice tail wheel landings. After the first landing; the aircraft veered to the right. I corrected with left rudder and the aircraft eventually sharply turned left. After a few back and forth oscillations; the aircraft performed a ground loop to the left. With the right wingtip scraping the ground. There was minor damage to the right wingtip. In retrospect; this was a classic ground loop and the bane of all tail wheel pilots. It is likely that my control inputs did were not timely and most likely weren't effective initially due to the low airspeed of the plane at that point; and the subsequent lack of airflow over the rudder. In the future; it will be best to add power at the first instance of oscillation in order to maintain positive aircraft control.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A PA-18 pilot ground looped his aircraft and scraped a wing. The pilot admitted that his control inputs were not timely and conducted when the aircraft's airspeed was too low for airflow.
Narrative: I went up for practice tail wheel landings. After the first landing; the aircraft veered to the right. I corrected with left rudder and the aircraft eventually sharply turned left. After a few back and forth oscillations; the aircraft performed a ground loop to the left. With the right wingtip scraping the ground. There was minor damage to the right wingtip. In retrospect; this was a classic ground loop and the bane of all tail wheel pilots. It is likely that my control inputs did were not timely and most likely weren't effective initially due to the low airspeed of the plane at that point; and the subsequent lack of airflow over the rudder. In the future; it will be best to add power at the first instance of oscillation in order to maintain positive aircraft control.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.