The pilot reported he flew a normal traffic pattern to the grass strip airport in Eminence, Indiana.
During the final landing approach, he was lined up with the runway but a little bit low for the approach.
He stated that he knew he was low and for an unknown reason he did not advance the throttle to arrest the Ercoupe 415’s descent. This resulted in the airplane’s landing gear contacting the bean field.
When the gear contacted the beans, the airplane nosed down into the ground and was damaged.
The airplane came to rest on the end of the grass runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the firewall and fuselage.
The pilot was not injured.
When asked if he experienced any mechanical difficulties with the airplane, he responded that there were none and that the airplane was operating perfectly.
Based on this information, the pilot failed to maintain a proper glide path during the landing approach and then failed to use available engine power to arrest the descent, resulting in an undershoot and collision with terrain.
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain a proper glide path during the landing approach and his failure to use available engine power to arrest the descent, resulting in an undershoot and collision with terrain.
NTSB Identification: CEN16CA317
This August 2016 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.
He at least didn’t lie about the airplane ‘losing power’ or something, so I hand it to him for owning up to his mistakes.
What a shame. Confirmation that the airplane will reach the threshold should start on every approach as soon as the descent is started by verifying the stabilized point on the ground (aiming point) is on the runway surface with proper airspeed maintained and keeping those two conditions with whatever adjustments are needed to pitch and power. Because of possible changing conditions, even the pitch and power combination used on the previous approach cannot be trusted to get you to the runway.
Sounds like this dude needs a couple of hours of serious dual with a CFI on short field landing!