N215TPiper PA-18-105 SPECIAL · 1952

On March 30, 2019, about 1256 Pacific daylight time, a Piper PA-18-105 airplane, N215T, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Copalis Beach, Washington. The pilot sustained minor injuries. The personal flight was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.

According to the pilot, the preflight inspection, start-up, taxi out and takeoff were all normal. About 70 minutes into the cross-country flight, the engine "started acting up" by running "rough" and losing power. The pilot activated the carburetor heat and manipulated the throttle, but the engine operation did not improve, and he was unable to restore the engine to cruise power. The pilot reported that the airplane was at an altitude of 2,000 ft, and that he "did not have any time or altitude" to try to glide to a nearby airport. He performed an emergency landing on a "logging road" in a clearcut forest area.

The pilot reported that, during the landing roll, the left wing impacted stumps before coming to rest in a nose-down attitude. The pilot saw fuel "pouring" into the cockpit and onto him; he believed that the fuel was coming from the left side of the airplane. The pilot left the airplane and hiked out of the area to find help. He reported the accident two days later, and when first responders arrived at the airplane it had been consumed by a post-impact fire. The pilot also reported that the airplane was susceptible to carburetor icing and he had to use carburetor heat on several recent flights.

The pilot stated later that the "altitude started declining as soon as the engine started running rough," and that he turned towards the logging road "as soon as [he] saw" that the airplane was losing power and altitude. He estimated that it was only a few minutes between the power loss and the landing. When asked about his approach to the selected landing location, the pilot reported that he "still had enough [power] to circle around while loosing [sic] altitude and tried to aim for that little gravel road there which looked like my best bet due to the circumstances."

According to the icing probability chart in FAA Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (CE-09-35) – Carburetor Icing Prevention, weather conditions were conducive to “Serious Icing – Cruise Power”.

The airplane came to rest about 20 ft from the side of the logging road, in a clutter of various-sized cut tree branches and stumps. The airplane was upright, pitched nose down, with its tail about 6 ft off the ground. The fabric skin of the airplane, the tires, and most of the interior components were consumed or significantly damaged by fire. The cockpit was destroyed by fire, and the left wing was canted forward about 85o. Portions of the forward fuselage frame were impact damaged. The engine remained attached to the airframe and enclosed by the aluminum cowl, both sustained fire damage. The two-bladed aluminum propeller remained attached to the engine and the spinner was undamaged.

Both propeller blades exhibited moderate twisting and bending deformation on their outboard half-spans. The outboard end of one blade was embedded into the top of a previously cut tree stump, but still attached to the remainder of the blade. That blade end was bent in a tip-aft arc, and the cut displayed similar curvature at the blade's entry point into the stump. The stump bore a similar but linear cut about 10 inches behind (relative to airplane travel direction) the embedded propeller blade, consistent with another, previous blade strike.

Examination revealed that the engine was fire and impact damaged but did not exhibit any exterior evidence of any non-impact related damage. The top spark plugs were removed and examined. They did not display any evidence of mechanical failure or excessive wear. Manual rotation of the engine resulted in thumb compressions on all cylinders. The engine control cables remained connected to their respective engine components, but operability was impeded or prohibited due to impact and fire damage. Fire damage to the engine accessories, including the magnetos, as well as all fuel system components including the carburetor, prevented determination of their pre-accident condition and functionality. Fire and impact damage to the engine prevented determination of its pre-accident condition and functionality.

Accident Site Location

Based on Google Earth imagery, the logging road selected by the pilot as his intended landing site was in a forest clearing that was roughly circular in shape, with a diameter of about 2,300 ft. The logging road bisected the clearing and was oriented on a true heading of about 290°, which was parallel to the airplane's cruise flight track.

The flight track was south of the clearing, and at the point where it was abeam the eastern edge of the clearing, was about the same distance north of a straight 12,000 ft segment of a two-lane paved road that was oriented on a true heading of about 270°. The center of the forest clearing was about 13,000 ft from the linear shoreline that was oriented approximately perpendicular to the flight track. The shoreline consisted of a sandy beach that was about 600 ft wide and extended at least 5 miles each way to the north and south. The pilot's destination airport, S16, was situated on that same linear stretch of shoreline/beach, about 4 miles north of where the flight track would have intersected the shoreline if the pilot did not turn towards the forest clearing and logging road that became the accident site.

In its landing circuit for the forest clearing, the airplane traveled a total distance of about 16,000 ft from the point where it began the descent and turn from cruise flight to the last recorded data point (See Figure 1). From that same top of descent point and before the turn, the airplane was about 12,000 ft from, and headed almost directly toward, the shoreline/beach.

Figure 1. Landing/Accident Site Approach Flight Path (Note proximity to road and beach)