What happened
During an instrument flight to Hale County Airport, the pilot was initially assigned an altitude of 8,000 feet, which was later increased to 10,000 feet for the en route portion of the flight. As the aircraft approached the Plainview VOR, Air Traffic Control cleared the pilot for the published VOR approach to runway 04. During this process, the pilot was twice issued the current Lubbock altimeter setting of 30.42 inches.
The aircraft was configured with the landing gear extended during the approach. The plane touched down on the extended centerline of runway 04, but the touchdown point was approximately 3/4 of a mile from the runway threshold. At the time of the approach, the fog top was reported at 4,200 feet, and the minimum descent altitude for the approach was 3,840 feet, with a field elevation of 3,372 feet.
The investigation
Post-flight examination of the aircraft revealed that the pilot's altimeter was set to 30.67 inches, which differed from the 30.42 inches issued by ATC.