What happened
On 26 October 1999, a Cessna 177B, registration G-BRDO, was performing a private landing at Bagby Airfield in North Yorkshire. The weather conditions were clear, with a light surface wind of 8 knots from 300°.
During the final approach to the grass runway 06, the pilot utilized a crabbed technique. As the aircraft entered the flare, the pilot raised the nose and used rudder to align the aircraft with the runway centerline. During this maneuver, the pilot temporarily lost visual contact with the runway surface. The aircraft subsequently touched down near the right-hand boundary of the runway.
While the pilot attempted to correct the heading with left rudder, the right mainwheel exited the runway surface and entered a patch of soft, recently tilled soil. The resulting drag caused the aircraft to yaw heavily to the right. The nosewheel subsequently struck a runway edge light and sank into the soft ground, leading to a rapid deceleration. This sudden deceleration caused the aircraft's nose to dip, resulting in the propeller striking the ground. There were no injuries to the pilot, though the aircraft sustained damage to the propeller, the nose wheel fairing, and the underside of the fuselage.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the runway conditions and the pilot's control inputs during the landing flare. The investigation established that while the left side of the runway was covered in stubble, the right side consisted of soft, newly sown soil. The pilot noted that the aircraft had drifted approximately six to eight meters to the right during the flare phase.