Accident to the Robin DR400 registered F-GDED on 27/10/2022 at Lognes

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation published in February 2023. 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

On returning from a local flight, the pilot joined the final for paved runway 26 at Lognes. As he considered he was too close to the aeroplane ahead, he carried out a go-around which he announced on the radio. At the end of the runway circuit, as runway 26R  was occupied, he accepted the controller’s suggestion to use grass runway 26L. During the landing, the aeroplane bounced several times, veered off the right side of the runway and struck a sign located level with taxiway S4.

2. Additional information

2.1 Pilot information

The 73-year-old pilot held a PPL(A) licence issued in 2017. The day of the accident he had logged 331 flight hours of which 95 hours as pilot-in-command and 4 hours and 21 minutes in the  previous 90 days.

2.2 Aerodrome information

Figure 1: excerpt from the Visual Aerodrome Chart published by the AIS, valid from 7 October

2.3 Meteorological information

The weather conditions were as follows:

• at Paris-Le Bourget airport, wind from 150° at 10 kt, CAVOK, temperature 22°C, dewpoint temperature 14°C, QNH 1019;
• at Paris-Orly airport, wind from 180° at 8 kt;
• at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, wind from 180° at 10 kt.

The Lognes airport ATIS gave the following wind information:

• Information recorded 14 min before the accident, wind from 190° at 6 kt, varying from 150° to 210°;
• Information recorded 21 min after the accident, wind from 180° at 10 kt, varying from 140° to 200°.

Given the direction of the wind which was practically a crosswind and the absence of gusts, the value of the effective wind^[1] during the aeroplane’s landing was approximately 3 kt or 5 km/h. It was thus not necessary to increase the approach speed.

2.4 Pilot’s statement

The pilot stated that during the previous flights, he was often accompanied by another pilot. He added that during the downwind leg after the go-around, he was number two and that he was on the base leg when the controller suggested he landed on runway 26L. He indicated that he requested confirmation because he recalled reading in the NOTAMs that the grass runway was reserved for touch-and-go. He landed at a speed he estimated at 130 to 135 km/h with the flaps in the second flap detent. He recalled he then bounced three or four times, which caused the aeroplane to deviate to the right side of the runway.

2.5 Controller’s statement

She stated that during the first approach, the pilot was too close to the  aircraft ahead of him as it seemed that he could not manage to regulate his speed. During the second approach, she considered that the aeroplane was very fast (between 140 and 150 km/h). She added that one of her colleagues in the tower thought that the pilot was going to go-around. She stated that she thought that the speed of the DR400 on final was high, that the aeroplane made a “three-point” landing and bounced four times, so hard on the nose gear that she thought it might break.

Lastly, she stated that after it struck the S4 sign, the aeroplane entered the taxiway and started to taxi. She then asked the pilot to stop and shut down the engine because she had seen something trailing behind the right wing of the aeroplane. It turned out to be the frame of the S4 sign.

2.6 Aeroplane information

The DR400 is a single-engine piston-powered aeroplane with a fixed tricycle landing gear, equipped with flaps with three locked positions: clean (flaps retracted to 0°), first flap detent (take-off configuration, flaps at 15°) and second flap detent (landing configuration, flaps at 60°).

The flight manual indicates, for a landing configuration at maximum weight, a stall speed (Vso)
of 95 km/h and recommends an approach speed of 68 kt or 125 km/h.

2.7 Safety lessons

It is likely that the extra speed, estimated at more than 10 km/h during the approach, was not completely absorbed by the pilot during the flare, which caused the aeroplane to bounce
at touchdown.

The aeroplane pilot manual^[2] specifies the speed to adopt during the flare before touchdown, on an aeroplane with a tricycle landing gear: during this deceleration phase, the speed will decrease from 1.3 Vso to 1.1 Vso when the landing is performed in the landing configuration.

On the DR400/180, the value of 1.3 Vso is 125 km/h and 1.1 Vso is 105 km/h.

February 2023