Accident Overview
On August 18, 2018, about 0946 central daylight time, a Cessna 210 airplane, registration N6958N, sustained substantial damage during a runway excursion at the Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. Airport (RVS) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The airline transport pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan was filed for the personal flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91. The flight had departed RVS about 0930 en route to McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE), Texas.
Event Sequence
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector who responded, the pilot could not start the airplane due to a discharged battery and had the local fixed base operator (FBO) use a ground power starter to jump start the airplane. After takeoff, at about 800 ft AGL, the pilot noticed the radios became silent. He maneuvered the airplane upwind and began troubleshooting the loss of radio communications: he checked circuit breakers, recycled the avionics master switch, tried COMM 2, and used the hand-held microphone mounted in the airplane. He changed his transponder code from 1730 to the emergency code 7600 and set up to return to the airport to land on runway 11. The pilot tried to deploy the flaps and landing gear, but there was no indication that either extended. He attempted to verify landing gear extension using the wing-mounted mirrors. During landing rollout, the pilot applied right rudder and brakes to stop the airplane. The airplane rolled off the runway into the grass with a collapsed left main landing gear.
Post-Accident Inspection
The FAA inspector examined the airplane and found no mechanical anomalies with the landing gear. He confirmed that the battery was completely discharged. Additionally, the airplane had been sitting on the ramp for about 3-4 months before the accident flight.