N9755K

On November 8,1998, approximately 1015 Pacific standard time, a Stinson 108-2, N9755K, operated as a 14 CFR part 91 personal flight, struck a power line and subsequently impacted terrain during approach to landing at the Flying B Airport, a private airport located approximately 4 nautical miles east of Rainier, Washington. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The private pilot, who was the sole occupant, received minor injuries. The pilot reported that visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. No flight plan was filed for the local flight, and there was no report of an ELT actuating.

The Flying B Airport has one runway, 13/31, a 2,200- by 60-foot turf-surface runway. Runway 13 is obstructed by 30-foot power lines marked with orange balls. A witness to the accident, who reported to responding Thurston County sheriff's deputies that he was watching the airplane land from the west side of Morris Road (west of the runway), stated that "the approach appeared normal, when the plane suddenly pitched nose down into the ground and flipped." The pilot reported to responding sheriff's deputies that "he [had] recently finished overhauling the plane", that this was his first flight in the accident aircraft, and that "he must have lost altitude more quickly than he realized, and caught the power lines." The airplane impacted and came to rest inverted approximately at the northwest end of the airstrip.

In a written statement, the pilot noted that the runway has a displaced threshold, and that he was aiming at the green runway markers. He stated that the aircraft sank into the wires; the landing gear caught the wires and the airplane went in on the nose and flipped upside down. He noted that he may have had a windshear problem.