Factual Summary
On 17 June 2003 at 1115 hours, a Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II, registration N39605, operated on a private flight by a single pilot, experienced a landing accident at Redhill Aerodrome in Surrey. The aircraft was manufactured in 1978 and was equipped with two Continental TSI0-360E piston engines. The pilot, the sole occupant, was uninjured.
Sequence of Events
The pilot reported flying a visual circuit and conducting a normal approach. He verified that the landing gear and flaps were extended. Upon touchdown, the aircraft ballooned into the air, and the pilot did not regain control before the aircraft contacted the runway surface again in a nose-low and right-wing-down attitude. The right propeller struck the runway. The grass runway had a slight up-slope at the initial touchdown point. The air traffic control officer on duty observed the aircraft bounce heavily multiple times during the landing.
Aircraft and Pilot Information
The commander held an FAA Commercial Pilot's Licence, was 52 years old, and had accumulated 6,371 total flying hours, including 17 hours on the Piper Seneca type. In the preceding 90 days, he had flown 4 hours, and in the last 28 days, 2 hours.
Damage
The accident resulted in substantial damage to the right propeller, shock loading to the engine, wrinkling of the skin on the underside of both wings and the lower sides of the forward fuselage, damage to the forward bulkhead, and the nose landing gear. The aircraft sustained substantial damage overall.