17 Apr 2009: BRINKER / GARNER BI-PLANE — Kurt G Becker

17 Apr 2009: BRINKER / GARNER BI-PLANE (N375CB) — Kurt G Becker

No fatalities • Caldwell, ID, United States

Probable cause

Loss of control during the landing roll for undetermined reasons.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On April 17, 2009, about 1240 mountain daylight time, an experimental amateur built Brinker / Garner tailwheel equipped bi-plane, N375CB, was substantially damaged during landing roll at the Caldwell Industrial Airport (EUL), Caldwell, Idaho. The airplane was registered to a private individual and operated by the pilot under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. The commercial pilot, sole occupant of the airplane, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the test flight. The local flight originated from the Sunrise Skypark (ID40), Marsing, Idaho, at 1130.

The pilot reported that during a routine test flight, he conducted a series of maneuvers to see how the airplane performed with full scale deflection of the control surfaces. Following the maneuvers, the pilot entered level flight and applied full throttle to perform a "top speed test." As the airplane accelerated past about 100 miles per hour, the airplane "started to vibrate severely." The pilot stated that after reducing the throttle and slowing the airplane down, the vibration lessoned around 70 miles per hour, and he decided to divert to EUL.

The pilot entered the traffic pattern for runway 30 and proceeded to execute a wheel landing slightly left of the runway centerline. The pilot said that as the tailwheel settled onto the runway, the airplane immediately veered to the right. Despite the pilot's control and brake inputs, the airplane continued to veer to the right and exited the runway. Subsequently, the airplane came to rest in a nose low attitude adjacent to the runway surface.

Examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector revealed that the left and right wing assemblies and fuselage were structurally damaged. The left main landing gear wheel assembly was separated. The tailwheel remained attached to the airframe. The left and right springs remained attached and undamaged. Movement of the tailwheel by hand revealed that it locked into its normal turning radius and subsequently broke free with little pressure.

No anomalies could be found, however, examination of the runway by the FAA inspector revealed a black rubber transfer mark with a width corresponding to the width of the airplane's tailwheel. The mark was not linear, but had a zigzag shape consistent with the tailwheel shimmying.

Contributing factors

  • cause Performance/control parameters

Conditions

Weather
VMC, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.