22 May 2011: FLOURNOY MARTIN R FLOURNOY MR S1S — MATT TANNER AVIATION LLC

22 May 2011: FLOURNOY MARTIN R FLOURNOY MR S1S (N457CF) — MATT TANNER AVIATION LLC

No fatalities • Colorado Springs, CO, United States

Probable cause

The pilot’s loss of directional control during the landing rollout due to failure of the tailwheel assembly for undetermined reasons.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On May 22, 2011, at 1630 mountain daylight time, N457CF, an experimental Flournoy MR S1S airplane, ground-looped during landing on Runway 15 at Meadowlake Airport (KFLY), Colorado Springs, Colorado. The airplane was registered to and operated by the commercial rated pilot, who was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the local flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.

According to the pilot, after a normal touchdown, he felt the tail drop about 6-inches followed by a loud grinding noise. As the airplane began to decelerate, it began to yaw to the left. The pilot applied full right rudder and right brake, but was unable to stop the yaw to the left. The airplane continued to rotate to the left and began to bounce/skip to the side and roll. The lower right wing struck the ground and the engine came to an abrupt stop. The pilot reported that the right main landing gear strut, entire brake assembly, wheel, tire, and wheel pant were damaged. The lower right wing tip and aileron sustained substantial damage from impacting the ground. The tailwheel separated from the airplane and there was substantial damage to the rudder and aft section of the fuselage. The propeller was also damaged.

An inspector with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) performed an examination of the airplane and discovered that the tailwheel spring attach bolt had pulled through the fuselage structure where it was mounted. The bolt was intact and there was no obvious damage to the threads. It could not be determined as to why the bolt separated.

Weather at Meadowlake airport at 1630 was reported as clear skies, visibility 10 miles, and wind from 100 degrees at 5 knots.

Contributing factors

  • cause Nose/tail gear attach section — Failure

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 100/05kt, 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.