The pilot receiving instruction reported that, during an annual insurance flight review, he was told to perform a short-field landing for the final landing.
The flight instructor told him to be “50′ over the numbers at 75 KIAS [knots indicated airspeed], then go to flight idle, push the nose down, and land short.”
On short final at the airport in Midland, Virginia, he obtained the target altitude and airspeed, then reduced the power to flight idle, and the Piper PA-46 dropped rapidly. He advanced the power lever, but the turbine-powered engine was slow to respond due to the spool-up lag, and the airplane landed hard and bounced.
They taxied back to the hangar with no further incident.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The damage was discovered later during an FAA evaluation for repairs for a ferry permit.
The ferry permit was submitted after receiving an engineering evaluation on the structure of the fuselage to allow the company to fly the airplane to a more appropriate repair station.
The flight manual for the PA-46-350P states: “For a short field technique, flaps are to be full down, airspeed 78 KIAS, throttle as required. Once over the obstacle on final, throttle reduced to idle. After touchdown, brakes maximum.”
Probable cause: The pilot’s improper landing flare and subsequent hard landing while demonstrating a short-field landing and the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action.
NTSB Identification: GAA17CA139
This December 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.
My point being this airplane seems to have been converted to turbine power, therefore procedures for a recip engine might(probably in this case) not apply…
Understand. It’s somewhat confusing that this is a piston model with a turbine engine and no discussion about a conversion or the pilot’s experience with that engine. But even with airliners isn’t power normally brought back to idle just before the roundout? Pushing the nose down would have steepened the approach but should have conserved speed maybe even increasing speed providing enough reserve lift for the roundout. Really there’s too much missing information.
Blame the instructor first, but the pilot should know his plane and not do anything that would lead to such an outcome. Pushing the nose down is why they hit hard no doubt, that and the slow thrust response.
the technique required by the instructor was for the “350” model, which is piston powered, the PT-6 powered model would require a longer response time from idle, which is apparently what happened, and caused an unnecessary accident….inexperienced instructor maybe??
According to the report the POH for this aircraft calls for reduction to idle once over the obstacle on final. This should be to shorten the float (but while still making a normal touchdown). However actions on final should not cause a steepened line of flight or any unsafe slow speed so following the POH cannot always be done literally.