R.C.ARNOLD N9335A Just wondering if anyone has seen this A/C or knows what happened to it. I looked for it in S.C. but no one there that I spoke to knew about it in 2003.
L-5jockey Apparently it made its way to California: ref: Accident -November 28, 1983 in EL CAJON, CA (ground loop and some type of landing gear or strut failure) NTSB Identification: LAX84LA081 and then.......? John
nisep I was the pilot who bent the aircraft. It was not a ground loop as the aircraft came to a stop about 45 degrees of runway heading. It was not a hard landing. Me and my passenger both commented that it was probably the smoothest C195 landing ever made. Winds were calm. To make a long story short, as I was rolling out the plane started drifting to the right and I attempted to correct with left rudder followed by gentle left brake. As I added left brake the peddle completely bottomed out. At about 45 degrees to the runway and guessing a ground speed of around 30 mph the left gear failed at the attach point. The plane went down on its left wing firing the gear and wheel assemble approximately 100 feet down the runway. It really was quite gentle. I immediate secured fuel and electrical. My passenger was already trying to exit the aircraft but the door would not open because the bent wing blocked it. My passenger, 6' and 260# laid down on the back seat and kicked the exit door with both feet eventually opening it after. 4 or 5 tries. I had over 5000 hours of tailwheel experience a lot of which was in Mexico in this aircraft on short unimproved strips. I had about 1000 hours in type. The FAA really did not investigate the accident. All they were interested in was if the paperwork correct and the ELT's battery was in date. They never asked me what happened. The FAA ruled it an incident. The insurance company immediately paid the $25000 stated value claim. I think the plane went to some salvage yard above LA. The plane was based at SDM/San Diego and was registered in SC for legal and tax purposes. Our investigation indicated that the brake line at the fitting where it attached to the Cleveland brake assemble failed. The gear leg showed signs of fatigue at the attach point. An Annual/100Hr inspection had been completed the week before the incident and signed off the day before. There is no way of seeing the fatigue unless you remove the gear leg. I recommend removing the gear legs and performing NDT every 5 years or 500 hours. I would replace the brake lines on the same schedule. Interesting, the FAA came out the evening of the incident and checked the date on the ELT'S battery that had just been replaced. They briefly looked at the logbooks which I had in the plane. They could not look at the plane because it had already been recovered by a huge truck wrecker and put in a locked hanger. I never heard another word from the FAA. The NTSB did not get involved since it was ruled an accident. So there!