LAX98LA077

Factual narrative

On January 25, 1998, at 0955 hours mountain standard time, a Pitts S1, N28K, ground looped during the landing roll at the Prescott, Arizona, airport. The aircraft sustained substantial damage, and the pilot was not injured. The aircraft departed Prescott at 0930 for a local area personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and included calm wind conditions. The pilot stated that he performed a short approach and a long landing on runway 21L to minimize the taxi distance. As he was approaching the turn off to the taxiway, the nose started to drift right in the direction of the turn off. He said he attempted to stop the drift with left rudder, with no effect. He stated that the slow turn increased in rate and he applied left brake, but to no avail. The airplane continued it's turn to approximately 45 to 60 degrees off the runway heading, where the airplane tilted left and the left wing tip struck the ground. A review of the pilot's flight time as shown in his report noted that he had approximately 11.5 hours of flight time in this make and model of airplane. The special surface weather observation taken by the air traffic control tower immediately after the accident reported calm wind conditions. The pilot performed a short approach with a long landing to minimize the taxi time and to aid in the flow of traffic at the airport. He stated that as he approached the turn off to the taxiway, the nose began to drift to the right. The pilot tried to correct for the drift by first adding left rudder then by applying left brake, all to no avail. The aircraft turned off the runway and ground looped. The wind conditions at the time were calm. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12