The pilot was attempting to land the Luscombe 8 in Elkhart, Indiana. The airplane touched down on the left main landing gear and bounced.
He attempted to recover from the bounce by reducing pitch so that the main landing gear wheels would touch down simultaneously, but he inadvertently applied too much pitch control and simultaneously applied left rudder, which made the airplane veer off the left side of the runway where it nosed over in an area of plowed snow.
The NTSB attributed the accident to the pilot’s improper flare, which resulted in a bounced landing.
NTSB Identification: CEN13LA127
This January 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Learn from the misfortune of others
Sign up now to receive NTSB Accident Reports and GA news in your email inbox. Join 110,000+ fellow aviators.
I started out in a tail wheel ship. Didn’t have a problem until I needed a plane with radios for X-Country work. Then no one would rent a tail wheeler, so I had to get a check out in the ever popular nose dragger.
The instructors now a days are from pilot factories not trained in anything that will hold them back from the corporate or airline job in the future. Sad but true. My 1st instructor was a CPT – Ag pilot and he taught the students how to control things.
If pilots that want to fly Tail-wheel Airplanes,Would get a good Tail-Wheel Flight Instructor,hire him for ten hours of dual,mostly take offs and landings,cross-wind included,then you would not have accidents like that one.