The pilot reported that, during the landing roll in the Texas Sport Aircraft TX-11C, an experimental amateur-built airplane, the heel of his shoe became caught on a protruding floorboard bolt and the airplane veered to the left.
The airplane exited the left side of the runway at the airport in Longmont, Colorado, hit a Visual Approach Slope Indicator light, nosed over, and came to rest upside down.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the rudder.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s loss of directional control when his foot became stuck on a protruding bolt in the airplane’s floorboard.
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This May 2021 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.
Yes this has sort of happened to me.
I was teaching a student touch and go’s in an old Citabria 7ECA.
He was doing quite well, so stupidly I let my guard down and got lazy. Putting my my feet flat on the floor. Sure enough Murphy’s law kicked in, and he touch down with a slight swerve. Which of course escalated to a big swerve. In my rush to get my foot onto the pedal, my boot got caught between the seat and the side panel. Too late! Off we went into the weeds. Luckily all we damaged was some tall grass and my ego.
After many, many hundreds of landings with students or others. My feet are never far away from those pedals. Learned my lesson.
When I was 20 years old I owned a Luscombe with brakes controlled by cables that hooked to little heal pads instead of toes. The floor had worn to where occasionally your heel could become wedged and it would cause you to ground loop. The only thing you could do when this happened was to apply equal pressure to the opposite brake to keep it going straight. Sorry Mitch🤨
This sounds more like a taildragger’s version of “the hatch just blew”. Sorry; not buying it.
Ditto
Except in the case of Gus Grissom in Liberty Bell 7, it was actually true.
I would think that every fastener on the floor surface should be countersunk around the rudder pedals?? I always fly with my moccasins. Easy off an on . Just my two cents. A&P, ground instructor, Pilot, owner of a Piper Pa 28-140.