After tail strike…

[flyingpreacher]

So I’ll leave out hopefully just enough details to make this more or less anonymous.

Yesterday, I was back to back with another club pilot who was taking some friends out sightseeing. (Not a great day for sightseeing flights, but that’s another issue.) I received a call from him just before I left for the airport and he said that he had a tail strike.

The tower controller called him and asked if he was ok because he saw sparks (just about dusk). Pilot indicated that he was and they taxied back normally.

That pilot examined the aircraft (172) and the only damage he noted was an abrasion to the rear tie down hook. I went to the airport and conducted a more thorough than normal preflight and noted only the same damage.

I called the tower on the phone later and he said that it wasn’t a drag, just a momentary touch. Seeing no additional damage and using extreme caution, I did 5 laps around the pattern. No abnormalities were observed and the flight was conducted without incident.

So what I’m asking you is, what else should we look for or is this basically a nothingburger?

 

[TCABM]

Structural inspection of the horizontal spar attachment point. There’s been a mx advisory about cracks found here due to improper ground handling (pushing tail down). Some kind of force was just applied in the opposite direction.

I think it takes a lot to get a tailstrike on a 172.

 

[Lindberg]

So what I’m asking you is, what else should we look for or is this basically a nothingburger?

This would have been a great question to ask before you took it into the air.

And if the details you're leaving out are relevant, you could post this in one of the anonymous forums and include those details.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I've yet to see a flight school C-172 or C-152 without a ground-down rear tiedown ring. I'm still amazed I didn't add to the loss of metal back there.

 

[flyingpreacher]

This would have been a great question to ask before you took it into the air.

And if the details you're leaving out are relevant, you could post this in one of the anonymous forums and include those details.

It was something I looked up and couldn’t find anything to contraindicate a flight unless there was deformity (which I inspected for carefully). I agree with your assessment though.

The details I left out were more about location and aircraft numbers so the pilot flying wasn’t getting dimed out.

The only relevant details that I inadvertently left out are that winds were a little sporty around the time of his flight, I don’t know if he conducted a weight and balance, but he did state that it was not loaded too far aft, and when I talked to the controller later, he stated that the pilot should have added power (didn’t state go around or if he was too close to stall speed).

ETA: our mechanic looked at it as well and said all looks good.