Accident to the Robin DR400 registered F-BTZI on 29/06/2024 at Deauville
Runway veer-off during landing run, in supervised solo instruction
This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation. 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 the student pilot’s statement. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.
1. History of the flight
The student pilot, unaccompanied, undertook a circular cross-country flight out of Deauville - Normandie airport. He took off from runway 12. On returning to the airport, he extended the flaps to the landing position, held a speed of 130 km/h on final and touched down on the runway on the main landing gear.
As soon as the nose gear came into contact with the runway, the aeroplane’s path rapidly veered to the LH side. The student pilot tried to counter this using the RH pedal but was unable to control the path. The aeroplane ran off the runway, struck the PAPI and after a RH ground loop, came to a stop after 30 m. The student pilot, unharmed, complied with the safety instructions and evacuated the aircraft.
2. Additional information
2.1 Meteorological information
The Deauville – Normandie airport weather reports gave the following values:
- 10:30 METAR: wind from 080° of 4 kt, varying in direction between 030° and 150°, CAVOK, ground temperature 16°C, dew point temperature 10°C, QNH 1015 hPa, no significant weather.
- 11:00 METAR: wind from 060° of 3 kt, varying in direction between 020° and 100°, CAVOK, ground temperature 17°C, dew point temperature 11°C, QNH 1015 hPa, no significant weather.
From time to time, there was a light LH crosswind component.
2.2 Student pilot information
The student pilot was in training for his PPL(A).
He had logged 50 flight hours in dual control and 8 hours of supervised solo flight.
The student pilot specified that he thought that his runway excursion was due to not having complied with the Robin instructions to unlock the nose wheel.
2.3 Aircraft information
There had been several runway excursions in the past with F-BTZI, without causing material damage.
Despite the examinations carried out by two different workshops and the aeroplane being grounded for one month, the club was unable to explain these recurrent LH runway excursions, with respect to the club’s other DR400s.
Figure 1: locking and unlocking system on Robin nose wheel (source: BEA)
3. Lessons learned
The locking and unlocking system on the DR400 nose wheel is based on the compression of the shock absorber. As a consequence, all the factors affecting the compression of this shock absorber explain the differences in behaviour from one aeroplane to another, in particular, the internal pressure in the shock absorber, an aft centre of gravity or holding a nose-up attitude on touchdown.
November 2024
[1] Except where otherwise indicated, the times in this report are in local time.
The final report has been published (October 2023). A courtesy translation into English will be available soon.