An Instructor and Student; both licensed pilots; were practicing landing directly into the sun at an airport with a snow bank at the runway's end which the landing gear hit causing the aircraft to land with the propeller contacting the runway.
Synopsis
An Instructor and Student; both licensed pilots; were practicing landing directly into the sun at an airport with a snow bank at the runway's end which the landing gear hit causing the aircraft to land with the propeller contacting the runway.
Narrative
I was providing flight training to another CFI. The purpose of the flight was to earn his tail wheel endorsement. We had completed 0.8 hours of flight maneuvers and were making our first landing. All pattern work was normal without VASI or PAPI and appeared only slightly low. Approach was stabilized and speed steady at 70 MPH indicated airspeed. At approximately 95 FT away from threshold; main wheels contacted a snow bank. Aircraft decelerated rapidly as it plowed main wheels through snow and onto pavement; nosing over; onto propeller and spinner. Aircraft came to rest on runway centerline; just past threshold markings; nose on ground tail 15 FT up in air and right side up. No injuries. Aircraft damage: sudden engine stop due to prop strike with ground; lower cowling; prop and spinner. Wind was 8 KTS aligned with runway (XX) heading. Sky was overcast. Ground was snow covered; runway was clear. We were landing into the sun which was mostly obscured by overcast. Sunset was XA10; one hour and 10 minutes after incident. The entire area was gray and the snow bank was indistinguishable from surrounding area.
Second reporter narrative
I was receiving training for a tail wheel endorsement. The Flight Instructor and I flew out; did some practice maneuvers to become more familiar with the flight characteristics of the airplane. The wind would have been a 7 to 10 know crosswind at our departure airport. The Instructor did not want to start training with crosswind landings so we went to a nearby airport where the wind was directly down Runway XX. We made a normal downwind; base; and final for Runway XX. Just short of the runway threshold; we suddenly found ourselves sliding nose down along the ground and then the runway. The plane stopped nose down on the centerline of the runway. When the plane stopped; we looked at each other and asked each other what just happened. Neither of us had any injuries. After exiting the plane we looked back and saw the main landing gear had impacted the top of the plowed snow bank about 90 FT back from the threshold. The hard snow on the mains caused the nose to rotate down and impact the ground. The lighting; terrain; and snow conditions appear to caused a visual condition where the altitude above ground was difficult to determine. Sky conditions were overcast; and the time of the occurrence there was 1 hour before sunset. Final was almost directly into where the sun would be setting. At the time of impact; the airspeed was 65 to 70 mph. The published stall speed for the airplane is 54 mph; but there is also a STOL kit on the plane. The instructor and I both felt there was no problem with the approach; and we would probably would have done a 3 point landing just past the threshold bars. We studied the terrain just before the threshold. A few hundred feet out from the runway; the ground appears to be 10 to 15 FT lower than the runway. It appears to rise up so that at 100 FT from the runway; it may actually be a foot or more higher than the runway. It is hard to determine since there was a 1.5 to 2 FT cover of snow. The plowed snow bank was about 2 feet high; and the wind had drifted the snow back from the bank so it appeared there was just snow cover on the ground. There were no shadows showing the change in terrain. On final approach; we were basing our altitude by looking ahead at the runway. The lighting at the time and the gradually rising flat terrain gave no indication of the obstruction just short of the runway threshold.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.