Aircraft

On the first attempted flight after annual inspection, my Piper PA-32’s nose gear collapsed during takeoff roll, resulting in a prop strike.

The FBO’s procedure of having a fuel truck cross the runway is to have the dispatcher in the FBO call on the CTAF “fuel truck preparing to cross runways,” the dispatcher then radios to the fuel truck they can cross if no one replies.

I called as I maneuvered for a low pass to observe the windsock midway along the side of the runway, as well as for any potential obstructions (coyotes, kids on bikes, etc., as this remote runway is in the desert next to a campgrounds), then lined up for approach and landing on Runway XY.

The pilot of Aircraft Y apologized multiple times and knew it was their fault. You could tell they really felt bad about the situation. They said they were trying to hurry for the base traffic and didn’t know we were taking the runway.

The best part about the aviation industry are the people. I have never in my 8,000 hours of flight time and over 25 years have I been treated like this from anyone in the industry. In my opinion if a pilot acts out in this manner over something that was not dangerous, I would question their ability to be somewhat calm in a real emergency.

Finally at about 500 feet AGL I landed in what appeared to be the smoothest desert terrain straight ahead. The landing was surprisingly uneventful and even the fairly short run after landing was surprisingly smooth. However the aircraft hit several cactus along the way.

During takeoff, after rotating and becoming airborne, and while increasing airspeed, there was a violent fluttering of the flight controls observed that negatively affected the controllability of the aircraft. The effects were severe enough that I do not believe that we would have been able to successfully complete an entire lap in the traffic pattern to land back at the airport.

After this incident, the pilot of the Bonanza cut off a Diamond DA-20 on final, with an even closer, near miss of what was definitely less than 1,000 feet.

He became so focused on making the runway and saving the engine that he forgot to lower the landing gear.