WPR20LA024 · Piper PA28R 180

The flight instructor and the pilot receiving instruction attempted to depart the airport for a training flight. A vehicle video captured the airplane striking a billboard about 2,200 ft off the departure end of the runway before impacting the ground. Neither pilot recalled the accident. The airplane was equipped with a backup landing gear extender system designed to automatically extend the landing gear, even if the position selector is up, depending on airspeed and engine power. The system will also prevent the landing gear from retracting until the airplane has accelerated to approximately 85 mph with full power, regardless of the landing gear selector switch position. Manual override of the system is possible by using an emergency gear lever located between the front seats. During postaccident examination of the wreckage the landing gear selector switch was found in the gear-up position, the emergency gear lever was found in the down position, the flaps were down 25 °, and the landing gear was found down. There were no mechanical malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane was within center-of-gravity limits, was not over its maximum gross weight, and should have established a climb rate of about 650 ft per minute with the landing gear retracted. The airplane likely did not attain the airspeed necessary for the landing gear to retract, and the flight instructor did not attempt to raise the gear using the emergency gear retract lever. As a result, the airplane’s rate of climb was reduced after takeoff, and it did not clear the billboard. The airplane owner’s handbook included a detailed description of the backup gear extender system and how to manually override it to aid in clearing an obstacle and for operations at high altitude airports. Additionally, a service bulletin applicable to the airplane advised pilots to review and understand all information pertaining to the backup gear extender system. The flight instructor had limited experience in the airplane. Prior to instructing in it, he had flown it twice with instructors but did not review the backup gear extender system in detail with them. His lack of understanding of the backup gear extender system was evident on his first flight with the pilot receiving instruction, when he could not identify a component of the backup gear extender system. When the gear would not retract after takeoff during the same flight, the flight instructor failed to use the emergency gear up lever to raise the gear. Thus, his lack of understanding of the backup landing gear extender system contributed to this accident.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset