Primary finding
Probable cause
The pilot’s loss of aircraft control following a bounced landing.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
The pilot completed the approach to her home airport with a right crosswind correction applied. She explained that the right main landing gear touched down first, the airplane bounced, and the airplane yawed to its left. The pilot said the airplane did not respond to her control inputs to realign with the landing runway, and that she did not abort the landing after the runway excursion because there were trees to the airplane’s immediate front. The airplane came to rest upright in the grass apron on the runway’s left side. The pilot was unhurt, and the airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall and nose landing gear mount structure. The damage to the structure was consistent with an aerodynamic stall and hard landing on the nose landing gear. A post-accident examination of the airplane by an FAA aviation safety inspector revealed flight control continuity from the flight controls to all flight control surfaces.