Incident Overview
On January 13, 1996, a pilot was landing an airplane that he had purchased on December 14, 1995. Since the purchase, he had flown it for approximately 23 hours. During that period, he had noted a transient instability in directional control during landing rolls. On this particular landing, he could not maintain directional control after touchdown, and the aircraft departed the side of the runway.
Inspection Findings
No damage was found as a direct result of the runway excursion. However, during subsequent examination, damage was discovered to the wing structure adjacent to the left main landing gear attach point. Additionally, the right main landing gear was found to be loose in its mounts, and its torque link was improperly shimmed. The investigation noted that the right main landing gear problems could only be identified by jacking the aircraft with the gear hanging free.
Evidence of Prior Condition
There was evidence that, over an undetermined period of time, the landing gear had been loose, and the resultant damage had occurred.