Accident to the Beech F33A "Bonanza" registered F-HEBL on 08/08/2021 at Dijon Darois (Côte-d'Or)

Cat. 3 investigation report: report concerning an occurrence with limited consequences, based on one or more statements not independently validated by the BEA.

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation published in December 2021. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference.

Note: The following information is principally based on statements made by the pilot. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.

1 - HISTORY OF THE FLIGHT

The pilot arrived at Dijon Darois aerodrome at about 08:00 to take the F-HEBL he had rented. As he had never flown with this aeroplane, he carried out the pre-flight inspection and a 35-minute local familiarization flight with a representative of the company that owned the aeroplane.
The pilot then took off alone at around 11:30 bound for Dijon Longvic aerodrome to pick up three friends to take them to Chambéry, where he landed at around 14:10. The pilot took off alone from Chambéry aerodrome at around 14:30 bound for Dijon Darois.
During the approach to the destination aerodrome, he heard a pilot on the A/A frequency announcing that he was taking off from runway 20 and he decided to join the downwind leg for that runway directly. He announced his intentions on the frequency.
In the downwind leg, he used the landing checklist to configure the aeroplane. He interrupted his task before extending the landing gear to look for the departing aeroplane, the pilot having announced that he was leaving the aerodrome circuit. He then resumed preparing the aeroplane for landing (speed reduction and flap configuration) without using the checklist.
During the flare, he realised that he had forgotten to extend the landing gear, he reapplied power, made a nose-up input and extended the landing gear. The aeroplane touched down with the landing gear still extending and unlocked. The aircraft slid off the side of the runway before coming to rest on the grass runway parallel to the paved runway.

2 - ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

On the day of the accident, the 40-year-old pilot held a CPL(A) commercial pilot licence. He had logged over 3,200 flight hours, 28 hours of which were in the previous three months. He had no previous experience of flying the Beech 33.
The pilot stated that during the final approach, he was focused on piloting because of gusty winds and turbulence. In his opinion, he found himself in what he described as a tunnel effect situation and therefore did not hear the aural gear-up warning and did not check that the aeroplane was properly configured.