WPR12CA343 · Piper PA-22-160

The owner/student pilot flew from her home airport to an airstrip she had been to previously. The departure, flight, and landing in the tailwheel-equipped airplane were uneventful. After shutdown at the destination airport, the pilot refueled by topping off both 18-gallon wing tanks. After that, she initiated her departure from the 3,000-foot dirt/turf runway. According to the pilot, the airplane's main landing gear bungee cords had recently been replaced and were significantly stiffer than the old ones, which caused the airplane to bounce more than she was used to on the dirt strip. At some point, the airplane bounced up off the runway, and the pilot pulled the control stick aft in order to remain airborne. The airplane began to veer to the left, and the pilot was unable to control or correct that turn. She applied more back pressure to climb over the hangar in her path and attempted to climb over the trees beyond the hangar. However, the airplane struck the trees and descended rapidly into a small clearing about 1,300 feet down the runway and about 400 feet from the runway centerline, where it stopped. Fire erupted almost immediately, but the pilot was able to exit through a cabin door. Much of the fabric-covered airplane and its contents were consumed by the fire. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane and that the wind was light and variable at the time. She also stated that the airplane became airborne prematurely due to the bounce and that she should have forced the airplane back onto the ground until it obtained sufficient speed for flight.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset