ATL07CA126 · Rans, Inc. RV-9A
Rans, Inc. RV-9A · Accident: nose gear collapsed during landing
From Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU) to Epps Airpark (00AL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL07CA126
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Rans, Inc. RV-9A
- Aircraft type
- Rans RV-9
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N269RV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU), Decatur, ALTo Epps Airpark (00AL), Harvest, AL
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Nose gear collapsed
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Touchdown, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated, "A normal left hand traffic pattern was used with full flaps for landing approach. The airspeed was a little higher than normal at around 70 mph instead of 65 mph for flare entry. The touch down point was earlier than planned. I misjudged the rising airfield terrain for my flare and touched down as a firm three point rather than on the mains first. I immediately took the weight off the nose wheel. From the nose gear fairing fiberglass pieces and the short groove in the turf, it appeared that when I first touched down I damaged the fairing and perhaps locked the wheel. The nose gear touched back down to leave another groove indicative of the nose fork twisting into the ground. The slope flattened out and the plane ballooned. I tried to add power but was too late. When the airplane settled down the damaged nose gear dug in, the [prop] struck and the airplane overturned. The flight was for experience with no intended destination." He also stated, " I should have been more aware of the rising terrain at this end of the airfield and better managed my airspeed. In addition I should have been more aware of the problem with this aircrafts nose gear and used a higher nose wheel tire pressure and replaced it with the manufacture's improved assembly with additional fork clearance. I should have read the recent NTSB June 21, 2007 report on 18 recent RV A model accidents with the nose wheel."
Probable cause
The pilot's improper landing flare and touchdown.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL07CA126
- Event ID
- 20080227X00242
- Case number
- ATL07CA126
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f8e474accd15249eb2660100d20bda5443086a39fd7affb1f22385877f2ccac3; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:26:12.090Z.