The solo student pilot reported that he was unable to maintain directional control of the tailwheel-equipped Interstate S-1A during the takeoff roll at the airport in Independence, Oregon, when he depressed the left rudder pedal.
He aborted the takeoff and the plane veered to the right, exited the right side of the runway, and hit multiple airport signs, substantially damaging the right wing.
Post-accident examination of the airplane by the owner revealed that the control cable that interconnects the forward and aft seat left rudder pedals had failed.
The owner further stated that it appeared the control cable had pulled through the nicopress swage and that the crimp marks were still visible on the swage.
A review of the airplane maintenance records revealed that the airplane amassed 1,483.4 hours since the control cables were replaced about 21 years before the accident.
Probable Cause: The separation of the left rudder pedal interconnect cable during takeoff, which resulted in the student pilot’s inability to maintain directional control.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This October 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.
Most likely the cable swage die either not the correct size or badly worn from years of use. These tools need to be carefully checked before each use swage sleeves can and more often than one would think are found to be either damaged or corroded off the shelf.
If the student pilot’s actions were correctly described his application of left rudder was the cause of this accident. One should never apply left rudder pressure during a takeoff or climb configuration. The correct action is to apply right rudder in all cases. Application of left rudder would definetly result in an accident. Perhaps this was a misprint.
If one would use the links in the articles, such as this one had, one could get some very interesting info on the aircraft involved. I read the annual inspection, and it seemed a bit lite. Yes, ADs were listed. And the annual was performed in accordance with the manufacturer’s manual & FAR 43. But nothing was said about inspection of the cables or checking rigging.
But there were pictures of the cable that came apart, and a log book entry for having replaced all cables with stainless (they spelled it wrong) steel A/C cable 02/09/2000, and rigged.
Not being an A&P mech. I wonder if the Interstate service manual (referred to at the start of the Annual entry) specifies how often the cables are to be checked.
But, I’m pretty sure that no one doing a normal preflight inspection would have been able to see the problem with the cables during that inspection. Which is why things like this must be inspected in the Annual, or 100 hr inspection. And this is where I see a problem — In the reports I read, I did not see where the last 100 hr inspection was done.
Wish more info was given on why the nicopress swage failed, was it improperly swaged, or corrosion from using the wrong material say copper sleeve with a stainless steel cable.
Rudder cable failure. Next time take that machine back to the Wright Bros’s bicycle shop for an inspection. Chafing rudder cables in 2023. Just beyond pathetic.
James’ comment is useless. Nothing chafing here. A very nice aircraft with a difficult situation. 2023 cables and systems have issues, also (or are you, James, indicating that newer aircraft don’t have component failures…?)
Sheesh… comments from non aviators…