Avions Pierre Robin CEA DR300/180R, G-BLGH, 18 September 2013
Avions Pierre Robin CEA DR300/180R, G-BLGH
Summary:
The pilot was landing on Runway 24 at Wycombe Air Park after a local flight; the wind was from the north at 6–8 kt. The aircraft touched down on its main landing gear and the pilot slowly lowered the nose. As the nosewheel made contact with the runway, however, he experienced violent nosewheel shimmy. He applied a burst of power and applied back pressure on the control column to decrease the load on the nosewheel, which arrested the shimmy. He noticed no further abnormalities until he had taxied back to the hangar.
After disembarking the pilot noticed a longitudinal crack in the lower right side of the fuselage, running from the engine firewall to the wing front spar. He concluded that the crack was most probably a result of the shimmy, since his landing had been normal on the main gear and fully ‘held off’. He considered it possible that, with this tug aircraft being flown by various pilots, damage may have been caused by a previous, and unreported, hard landing.
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