CEN16LA101 · Aeronca O-58B
Assend Dragon Aviation Aeronca O-58B · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Bulverde Airpark (1T8) to Bulverde Airpark (1T8)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16LA101
- 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
Aeronca O-58B
- Aircraft type
- Aeronca O-58
- 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
- N47185
- Operator
- Assend Dragon Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bulverde Airpark (1T8), Bulverde, TXTo Bulverde Airpark (1T8), Bulverde, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 73 years (built 1943)
- 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 · landing roll
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot reported that, following a normal touchdown and during the landing roll, the airplane suddenly veered to the left. The pilot corrected for the left swerve with the application of right rudder and brake. The airplane subsequently entered a right swerve. The airplane did not respond to the pilot's application of left rudder and brake inputs. The pilot reported that there was a 15-ft descending embankment and trees off the right side of the runway and that, to avoid a runway excursion, he lowered the left wing and intentionally ground looped the airplane to the right. The left wing subsequently contacted the runway surface.
A postaccident examination revealed a fracture to the left main landing gear wheel casting. The wheel fracture was located along the inner bearing race shelf and resulted in the bearing being exposed. The bearing race flange had fractured circumferentially and radially in two places. Further examination of the fracture surfaces revealed areas of fatigue, which were the result of casting oxide imperfections that had been present since the wheel was cast and had developed under typical loading of the landing gear. Additionally, the observed alternating fracture features were consistent with spectrum loading, typical of those experienced by a landing gear wheel. Ultimately, the wheel failed as a result of progressive fatigue cracking. The wheel had been cast in 1942, and the owner reported that the airplane had accumulated 3,520 hours since new with 10 hours since the last inspection.
Probable cause
The failure of the left main landing gear wheel casting due to fatigue, which resulted in a loss of directional control during the landing roll.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16LA101
- Event ID
- 20160209X61349
- Case number
- CEN16LA101
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: c200e32d56b805b16c13a3989d36e9de6ea8bf3e314e121f229276b359e6d4e6; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:08:43.036Z.