Amateur-built VANS AIRCRAFT RV 9A N142DD accident near Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain a proper descent rate, which resulted in a hard landing.

NTSB analysis

The pilot and passenger were landing on a grass strip when the airplane landed hard and bounced twice. The nose gear fork embedded in the grass surface, the nose gear collapsed, and the propeller lodged in the soil. The airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer and main spar. Although the pilot thought that the airplane had hit an uneven surface during landing that caused the gear to collapse, an examination of the grass runway did not reveal any irregularities in the surface of the area of the nose gear collapse.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN15LA351 for the full record.