Accident to the Elixir registered F-HCDN on 02/05/2025 at Amboise - Dierre AD

Around one minute after taking off from Amboise, the “Lane A” caution light came on and was steady. The pilot decided to turn around in order to carry out an emergency landing as indicated in the flying club checklist procedure, whereas the flight manual procedure only recommends landing at the closest suitable aerodrome.

During the final approach, the elevator trim was set to 39% nose down. The pilot followed an approach slope which was above the nominal slope. He adopted a speed of 65 kt, as recommended in the flying club checklist, which is higher than the speed of 60 kt indicated in the flight manual. This excessive speed, with the flaps in the landing position, resulted in the pilot adopting a negative pitch attitude on final to intercept the standard slope. The pitch attitude remained negative until the flare. The aeroplane bounced. On touchdown, the nose-down load generated by the trim setting transferred a considerable portion of the aeroplane’s weight onto the nose wheel. The aeroplane may have experienced a wheelbarrowing phenomenon which probably locked the nose wheel and caused the aeroplane to skid. When the aeroplane ran off the runway, the nose wheel rolled into a rut, the fork ruptured and the aeroplane nosed over.