Accident Details
On March 13, 2019, about 1810 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 182D (registration N8905X) was substantially damaged after impacting terrain during takeoff from Transylvania Community Airport (3NR3) in Brevard, North Carolina. The private pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the personal flight under 14 CFR Part 91.
According to the pilot, after a preflight inspection with no anomalies, he boarded the airplane with the seat in its aftmost position. He slid the seat forward until he could see three holes in the rail, his typical seating position, and rocked the seat to verify it was locked. After starting the engine, taxiing, and performing an engine runup, he began the takeoff roll. About 4-5 seconds into the roll, the seat slid backwards, preventing him from reaching the rudder pedals. The airplane departed the left side of the runway, nosed over, and came to rest inverted.
Aircraft Information
The Cessna 182D was manufactured in 1961 and registered to the pilot in January 2019. Its most recent annual inspection was completed on August 18, 2018, at a total time of 4,251.8 hours. The annual inspection log entry noted compliance with airworthiness directive (AD) 2011-10-09, which involves a seat rail inspection. At the time of the accident, the airplane had accumulated 4,265 total hours.
Examination Findings
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector reported substantial damage to the wings and fuselage. Examination of the left front seat rails revealed that the housings remained engaged on the seat rails except the left forward roller housing, which was disengaged from the seat rail. The housing tangs were not worn, distorted, or splayed. The pin that engaged into the track had no anomalies, the pin spring had positive engaging forces, and the holes were slightly worn. The seat rail was not damaged along the sides of the rail, but the top of the rail had scoring marks.
During an interview with the FAA inspector, a mechanic who worked on the airplane the day before to replace the transponder stated that while he sometimes removes front seats for such work, he did not remove the left front seat during that maintenance; only the right front seat was removed.
The airplane owner's manual includes a before-engine-start checklist item: "Adjust seat to a comfortable position, check to see the seat locking mechanism is secure, and fasten safety belt."