Primary finding
Probable cause
That the pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed while on final approach which resulted in an inadvertent stall during the flare.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
The pilot was completing a visual flight rules personal flight. While on final approach, the airplane stalled when the pilot flared and the airplane sustained a hard landing. The nose wheel collapsed on touchdown and the airplane skidded off the runway.
Source record
Factual narrative
On January 29, 1994, at 1246 hours Pacific standard time, a Piper PA-28-235, N8760W, landed hard, collapsed the nose gear, and nosed down while landing on runway 01 at Derby Field, Lovelock, Nevada. The pilot was completing a visual flight rules personal flight. The airplane, registered to and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage. Neither the certificated private pilot nor his passenger was injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight originated at Reno-Stead Airport, Reno, Nevada, at 1215 hours. Mr. Hugh "Jack" Roche, Principal Maintenance Inspector, Federal Aviation Administration, Reno Flight Standards District Office, conducted the on scene investigation. Inspector Roche said the pilot reported that he "stalled" the airplane during the landing. The airplane struck the runway about 75 feet south of the threshold. The airplane's nose wheel collapsed and the airplane skidded off the left side of the runway and came to rest, nose down, about 600 feet north/northwest of the runway's edge. The pilot submitted a Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report, NTSB Form 6120.1/2 to the Southwest Regional Office. In the report the pilot said that the airplane sustained "...a hard landing for an unknown reason...." He also said the airplane touched down about 500 feet beyond the threshold. In a written statement to the Pershing County Sheriff's Department, Lovelock, Nevada, the pilot said, in part, "...our plane slowed too far and stalled in. It hit the runway fairly hard and caromed off the left side, where it nosed up [down]." The passenger, the pilot's son, also submitted a written statement to the Sheriff's deputy. He confirmed the pilot's statement about slowing too far and said the airplane landed "askew." -