Accident Overview
On 27 September 2017 at 1350 UTC, a Socata TB20 aircraft, registration N20TB, was involved in a wheels-up landing at Blackbushe Airport, Hampshire. The aircraft, manufactured in 2000, was powered by a single Lycoming IO-540 piston engine. The flight was conducted under a Private Pilot's Licence with one pilot and one passenger on board; neither occupant reported injuries.
Flight Details
The pilot had intended to fly to Sandown, but after checking the weather, he deemed it unsuitable for Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight. To avoid disappointing his passenger, who was on their first flight, the pilot decided to perform a couple of circuits at Blackbushe. After taking off and climbing to the circuit height of 800 ft, he completed one circuit, which ended in a wheels-up landing.
Damage and Injuries
The accident resulted in damage to the propeller, fuselage, landing gear, engine mounts, and cowling. No injuries were reported to either the pilot or the passenger.
Pilot's Experience and Comments
The pilot was 74 years old with a total flying experience of 294 hours, including 23 hours on the TB20 type. In the last 90 days, he had flown 8 hours, with 2 hours in the last 28 days. The pilot stated that he was normally rigorous in performing his checks on finals and could not understand why he had omitted them on this occasion. He suggested that a recently purchased noise-cancelling headset may have made the sound of the landing gear warning chimes less apparent, potentially contributing to the omission of the landing gear extension checks.
Investigation
The information for this report was derived from the Aircraft Accident Report Form submitted by the pilot. No further analysis or probable cause was stated in the source.