Narrative:

I was the captain on a single pilot part 91 flight with two passengers in a piper navajo. I approached the airport from the north on a radar vector from approach. Approximately 5 miles from the airport; I picked up the airport visually (day VFR conditions were present) and was cleared for the visual approach to runway 32. I stayed on the IFR flight plan and switched to advisory frequency while I joined the right traffic pattern to runway 32. (Runway 32 is right hand turns) the traffic pattern and landing were normal. After the landing roll I went to exit the runway onto the taxiway on the right and pressed the right rudder pedal and immediately noticed the aircraft did not respond as usual. At that time the aircraft began tracking slightly to the left. I continued to make right rudder pedal inputs and did not get the response out of the plane that should have occurred. At that time the right rudder pedal was depressed as much as possible; and we were traveling approximately 10 knots. After further efforts to turn the aircraft on the taxiway I turned my effort over to stopping the aircraft. With the right rudder pedal still depressed I applied pressure to both brakes; resulting in a further turning to the left. With little runway width remaining I cutoff the engines in an effort to minimize damage if any obstacles (runway lights; snow banks) were in our path. The aircraft stopped no more than 3 feet off the side of the runway; with only the nose wheel in the grass. The main wheels remained on the runway with no damage to the aircraft; and no persons were injured or hurt. I made three radio calls immediately after we stopped; the first was an announcement on CTAF that an aircraft was disabled toward the departure end of runway 32. (I was not aware of any aircraft in the air or on the ground that were disrupted) the second radio call was to unicom to coordinate a tug to pull us back to the ramp; as well as if they could also monitor CTAF for any traffic that may attempt to use the runway. The third radio call was to clearance to cancel our IFR flight plan. About two minutes after the radio call to unicom; two line guys showed up in a golf cart where myself; and the two line guys pushed the plane back onto the runway where they attached the tow bar and towed us back to the ramp. In total I would estimate that the aircraft was disabled on the runway for less than 10 minutes. Currently the aircraft is in maintenance where it is being probed for possible reasons as to why the nose wheel steering would not turn to the right. The only contributing factor I believe could have played a role was there was a light drizzle and the runway was wet. (No standing water) the wet runway may have slowed the stopping of the aircraft. While I think the mechanical issue may not have been prevented; I do believe the actions and inputs I made on the braking could have been more assertive. For several seconds after I noticed the aircraft was not steering to the right and the aircraft began its leftward turn; I continued to only apply full right rudder pedal pressure in an attempt to correct the movement. In hindsight I should have immediately stopped the aircraft as soon as I noticed I wasn't getting the response I desired out of it. If this action was taken immediately the aircraft may have remained on the runway.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA31 pilot reported that he was unable to control his aircraft after landing because the nose wheel steering would only allow the aircraft to turn left. The aircraft was finally stopped with the nose wheel off the runway.

Narrative: I was the Captain on a single pilot Part 91 flight with two passengers in a Piper Navajo. I approached the airport from the north on a radar vector from Approach. Approximately 5 miles from the airport; I picked up the airport visually (Day VFR conditions were present) and was cleared for the visual approach to Runway 32. I stayed on the IFR flight plan and switched to advisory frequency while I joined the right traffic pattern to Runway 32. (Runway 32 is right hand turns) The traffic pattern and landing were normal. After the landing roll I went to exit the runway onto the taxiway on the right and pressed the right rudder pedal and immediately noticed the aircraft did not respond as usual. At that time the aircraft began tracking slightly to the left. I continued to make right rudder pedal inputs and did not get the response out of the plane that should have occurred. At that time the right rudder pedal was depressed as much as possible; and we were traveling approximately 10 knots. After further efforts to turn the aircraft on the taxiway I turned my effort over to stopping the aircraft. With the right rudder pedal still depressed I applied pressure to both brakes; resulting in a further turning to the left. With little runway width remaining I cutoff the engines in an effort to minimize damage if any obstacles (runway lights; snow banks) were in our path. The aircraft stopped no more than 3 feet off the side of the runway; with only the nose wheel in the grass. The main wheels remained on the runway with no damage to the aircraft; and no persons were injured or hurt. I made three radio calls immediately after we stopped; the first was an announcement on CTAF that an aircraft was disabled toward the departure end of Runway 32. (I was not aware of any aircraft in the air or on the ground that were disrupted) The second radio call was to Unicom to coordinate a tug to pull us back to the ramp; as well as if they could also monitor CTAF for any traffic that may attempt to use the runway. The third radio call was to Clearance to cancel our IFR flight plan. About two minutes after the radio call to Unicom; two line guys showed up in a golf cart where myself; and the two line guys pushed the plane back onto the runway where they attached the tow bar and towed us back to the ramp. In total I would estimate that the aircraft was disabled on the runway for less than 10 minutes. Currently the aircraft is in maintenance where it is being probed for possible reasons as to why the nose wheel steering would not turn to the right. The only contributing factor I believe could have played a role was there was a light drizzle and the runway was wet. (No standing water) The wet runway may have slowed the stopping of the aircraft. While I think the mechanical issue may not have been prevented; I do believe the actions and inputs I made on the braking could have been more assertive. For several seconds after I noticed the aircraft was not steering to the right and the aircraft began its leftward turn; I continued to only apply full right rudder pedal pressure in an attempt to correct the movement. In hindsight I should have immediately stopped the aircraft as soon as I noticed I wasn't getting the response I desired out of it. If this action was taken immediately the aircraft may have remained on the runway.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.