Maule M-7-235C N15SN

Summary

On 26 July 2006 at about 00:28 local time, a Maule M-7-235C registered N15SN was involved in an accident near Auburn, Washington, United States. One person was on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 July 2006 at 00:28

Classification

Accident

Location

Auburn, Washington, United States

Nearest airport

Auburn Municipal Airport (S50)

Coordinates

47.3278, -122.2267

Aircraft

Maule M-7-235C

Registration

N15SN

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Port Orchard → Auburn

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA06CA149

Nobody was injured.

The loss of directional control [not possible] during landing roll as a result of the disconnected tail wheel steering assembly [for undetermined reasons], which led to an inadvertent ground loop during the landing roll.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

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. Postaccident 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.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.