Reno Tahoe International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Reno, Nevada 89501
Friday, September 12, 1997 13:50 PDT

The pilot said that the landing gear down lights did not come on and he executed a go-around so the air traffic control tower personnel could visually check the gear's position. The tower personnel confirmed that the gear appeared down. On crosswind, the aircraft descended and struck a fence. The pilot said the engine began sputtering when he initiated the climb. Witnesses, including another pilot in the traffic pattern, reported seeing the aircraft in a nose high attitude with the wings oscillating before the aircraft entered a stall and descended behind buildings. The pilot was in the left seat for the flight. A Statement of Demonstrated Ability was issued on March 17, 1987, for a right arm amputation from the shoulder down on the basis of a special medical flight test in a non-complex Piper PA28-180. The FAA inspector who conducted the flight test issued a student pilot certificate with several limitations, which were not transferred to his subsequent temporary and permanent pilot certificates as required by pertinent FAA Orders. The certificated flight instructor (CFI) who flew with the pilot just before this flight noted that he had many difficulties in controlling the aircraft and working the trim, adjusting the power settings, operating the gear controls, talking on the radio, and moving the flap control handle. In any of those operations, the pilot had to hold the yoke with his knees and reach across his body. The CFI said the pilot needed more work and did not endorse him for high performance aircraft. Post-accident examination of the aircraft revealed no evidence of failure or malfunction with the flight controls or engine. Fuel system continuity was established. A measured 2.5 gallons were drained from the left wing tank and 1.5 gallons from the right wing tank (unusable fuel in each tank is 1-gallon). A screw that attaches to the bus was found to be missing from the landing gear indicator circuit breaker. The system had been worked on by a maintenance facility just before the flight. Prior to the 4.5-hour accident flight, the pilot had logged 3 hours in high performance aircraft with a CFI. Most of the aircraft controls, normal and emergency, are on the pilot's right side. The pilot wore no prosthetic device during the accident flight. None of the passengers were rated pilots.

The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed during a go-around, which resulted in an inadvertent stall/mush. Factors in the accident were: the pilot's lack of qualification in the aircraft; the FAA pilot certification system's failure to transfer the medical limitations imposed on the pilot to his private pilot certificate; the pilot's inadequate preflight and in-flight fuel planning/decisions that caused the aircraft to arrive with a critically low fuel state, which resulted in a momentary loss of power due to an unporting of the fuel tank supply pickup at a critical time in the go-around; and, the maintenance facilities' failure to properly connect the landing gear indicator circuit breaker to the bus pane.