What happened
On August 1, 2020, a Piper PA-32RT-300T, registration N3025L, was involved in an accident during takeoff from runway 36 at Cherry Ridge Airport (N30) in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The flight was a personal operation intended to travel to Ocean City Municipal Airport (OXB) in Maryland. The aircraft was carrying the pilot and four passengers, all of whom were not injured.
The pilot reported that during the takeoff roll, the aircraft began veering to the left and would not correct with right rudder input. As the aircraft reached a speed of 70 to 71 knots—which was below the required rotation speed—the pilot attempted to lift the nose. The aircraft may have briefly become airborne but failed to rotate properly, resulting in a tail strike and the aircraft coming to rest in the grass with a collapsed nose landing gear.
Security camera footage provided a different sequence of events. The footage showed the aircraft tracking the runway heading until the pitch attitude increased significantly, causing a tail strike approximately 1,660 feet down the 2,986-foot runway. Following the strike, the nose pitched down rapidly, the nose gear collapsed, and the aircraft veered off the left side of the runway, striking vegetation and terrain.
The investigation
An examination of the wreckage by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector found no evidence of mechanical failures or malfunctions prior to the impact.
Investigation into the pilot's performance planning revealed discrepancies in density altitude calculations. The pilot had calculated a density altitude of 1,227 feet and estimated a takeoff ground roll of 1,500 to 1,600 feet. However, based on the actual temperature of 22°C at the time, the density altitude was actually 2,622 feet. At the aircraft's takeoff weight of 3,472.7 pounds, the required takeoff ground roll was approximately 1,630 feet. Using a Koch chart, it was determined that the actual conditions required a 28% increase in takeoff distance and would result in a 21% decrease in the rate of climb compared to standard sea level conditions.