NASA

The person on the edge of the runway failed to clear the runway; in fact he stepped out on the runway while I was on my final approach.

While flying low over the water I suddenly and completely unexpectedly hit the water. The plane pitched up in the air and back down slamming onto the water extremely hard. The plane came to a stop and myself and my passenger were in dense fog.

Aircraft landed prior to the displaced threshold and runway, taxied to the runway entryway and stopped nose to nose with my aircraft. Pilot made a motion with his hands that he wanted me to move out of his way so he could taxi past.

The tower at KFNL is temporary and has no current access to radar but relies on visual observation from the ground level. Though radar has been installed, it has not been certified for almost a year now due to FAA-imposed Covid restrictions.

After we landed we listened to the live ATC recording of our flight and came to the conclusion that ATC misspoke and that the call to “make left traffic pattern at your discretion” was meant for a different aircraft.

I attempted to takeoff from the wrong runway at Charles M Schulz Sonoma County Airport (KSTS), at a known hot spot (Taxiway Hotel at Runway 20). This is a stupid mistake that “I would never make,” nonetheless, even after I made the mistake, I was not convinced that it happened, so much did I believe that I had lined up correctly.

After a difficult flight and a complicated landing, to think that negotiating the ground would be the most difficult part was stressful.

I feel the mechanic created this situation by not performing the overhaul in a timely manner. He would work for a few hours, leave the hangar and not get back to the job for days or weeks. This caused him to lose track as to where he was in the overhaul process, and consequently, miss a very important step.

Upon inspection of the runway a dead Prairie Dog was found in the vicinity of where I landed. It appears as though my right main tire struck the Prairie Dog, which caused me to veer to the right. There were no injuries.