Aeronca instructor pilot; performing a tailwheel checkout for a private pilot; reports a landing gea...

Narrative:

The subject airplane was an aeronca model TAC65; called the aeronca 'defender'; a conventional-gear fabric-covered airplane. On landing number 7 of an aircraft familiarization and checkout flight with a rated private pilot with previous tailwheel endorsement; the left landing gear folded back and aircraft veered approx 30 degrees to the left and came to a stop about 20 ft to the left of runway centerline; on the runway (a dirt and gravel surface) with left wing low. The previous 6 landings; 5 at a different airport; and one at this one and the rest of the checkout flight; had been very good; smooth; no bounces; no indications of any problems. The pilot had handled the aircraft with precision and very smoothly; and I had decided I considered him competent and safe to fly the aircraft safely on his own. When we landed this time; where the flight had originated; and the aircraft was based; with a full-stall landing and groundspeed estimated at about 40 mph maximum; the airplane started leaning left on roll out. I saw the pilot (in front) had already full right aileron; and some right rudder; but the wing continued to lower on the left and a scraping sound was heard as the left gear was digging into the dirt. The airplane veered a bit to the left and stopped in a cloud of dust. We unstrapped; turned off the fuel and magnetos; and exited the aircraft. Then we could see the stub end of the left gear appeared broken and was outside of the oleo gear housing; and the broken gear had caused us to lean and veer to the left. There were no injuries. Damage appeared confined to the broken landing gear. A close walk-around inspection before flight had shown no anomalies. Aircraft had been recently inspected in accordance with annual inspection procedures. I don't know of anything we as pilots could have done to induce the gear failure; or to have any way to know the gear was about to; or had; broken.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Aeronca Instructor pilot; performing a tailwheel checkout for a private pilot; reports a landing gear failure on the seventh landing all of which had been very smooth. The aircraft is stopped on the runway with no other damage reported.

Narrative: The subject airplane was an Aeronca Model TAC65; called the Aeronca 'Defender'; a conventional-gear fabric-covered airplane. On landing number 7 of an aircraft familiarization and checkout flight with a rated Private Pilot with previous tailwheel endorsement; the left landing gear folded back and aircraft veered approx 30 degrees to the left and came to a stop about 20 FT to the left of runway centerline; on the runway (a dirt and gravel surface) with left wing low. The previous 6 landings; 5 at a different airport; and one at this one and the rest of the checkout flight; had been very good; smooth; no bounces; no indications of any problems. The pilot had handled the aircraft with precision and very smoothly; and I had decided I considered him competent and safe to fly the aircraft safely on his own. When we landed this time; where the flight had originated; and the aircraft was based; with a full-stall landing and groundspeed estimated at about 40 mph maximum; the airplane started leaning left on roll out. I saw the pilot (in front) had already full right aileron; and some right rudder; but the wing continued to lower on the left and a scraping sound was heard as the left gear was digging into the dirt. The airplane veered a bit to the left and stopped in a cloud of dust. We unstrapped; turned off the fuel and magnetos; and exited the aircraft. Then we could see the stub end of the left gear appeared broken and was outside of the oleo gear housing; and the broken gear had caused us to lean and veer to the left. There were no injuries. Damage appeared confined to the broken landing gear. A close walk-around inspection before flight had shown no anomalies. Aircraft had been recently inspected in accordance with Annual Inspection procedures. I don't know of anything we as pilots could have done to induce the gear failure; or to have any way to know the gear was about to; or had; broken.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1109769
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Aeronca Champion
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Main Gear
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 15 Flight Crew Total 6230 Flight Crew Type 4
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Aeronca instructor pilot; performing a tailwheel checkout for a private pilot; reports a landing gear failure on the seventh landing all of which had been very smooth. The aircraft is stopped on the runway with no other damage reported.