Accident to the Cessna 182 registered F-HAPY on 28/03/2022 at Taillefontaine

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation published in November 2022. 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, accompanied by a passenger who was a commercial pilot, took off from Taillefontaine private aerodrome at around 09:00 for a local flight. The purpose of this flight was to check all the functions of the aeroplane and to finish drawing up the list of work to be carried out during the forthcoming maintenance operations. After approximately 30 min of uneventful flight, the pilot landed at the private aerodrome to drop off his passenger. He took off again alone for a flight bound for Troyes-Barberey aerodrome where the workshop that was to carry out the aeroplane’s maintenance was located.

After about a dozen minutes flying at 2,000 ft, the pilot engaged the autopilot in “heading-alt” hold mode. Shortly afterwards, he noticed that the aeroplane was climbing without him making any input on the controls. On reaching an altitude of 2,300 ft, he disengaged the autopilot and started to return to his departure aerodrome.

During this return leg, the pilot noticed that the controls were very stiff with a marked tendency to pitch down the aircraft, which he had to counter with a constant pitch up input. The aeroplane nevertheless lost altitude steadily and the pilot estimated that he was close to the treetops when he saw the threshold of runway 03[1].

He joined the base leg for runway 03, then lined up on final. He arrived on short final at about
65 kt[2] with the flaps extended to the third flap detent and a slight tailwind which he estimated at 5 kt. The pilot had to continue to make strong inputs on the stick and during the flare, he lost control of the aeroplane, which swerved to the right and rolled over in the ploughed soil adjacent to
the runway.

2. Additional information

2.1 Pilot information

The 68-year-old pilot held a PPL(A) private pilot licence with a valid single-engine piston rating.

He had logged 304 flight hours, of which 2 h and 10 min in the 3 months prior to the accident. He had logged 211 h on the Cessna 182, all of which were on the F-HAPY, more than 3 months before the accident.

2.1. Meteorological information

At the time of the occurrence, the METARs for Beauvais-Tillé and Albert-Bray aerodromes, at a distance of 65 km and 75 km respectively from Taillefontaine, indicated the following weather conditions:

- calm wind;
- visibility between 7,000 and 8,000 m;
- no significant clouds;
- temperature between 14 and 16 °C;
- QNH 1023 hPa.