N1514X

On May 15, 2003, at 1215 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-28R-200, N1514X, was substantially damaged while landing at the Montgomery County Airpark, Gaithersburg, Maryland. The certificated private pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the local personal flight conducted under 14 CFR Part 91.

According to the pilot, he was conducting touch and go's to runway 14, a 4,201-foot long, 75-foot wide asphalt runway. On the seventh landing, the pilot elected to perform a simulated power-off, "gliding approach," to the runway. While on the downwind leg, abeam the approach end of the runway, the pilot reduced the throttle to 1,000 rpm's, performed the landing checklist, and added one notch of flaps. He then turned on to the base leg at an airspeed of 80 mph. As the turn on to the final approach leg was made, at an altitude of 350 feet agl, the airspeed began to decrease to 70 mph, and the pilot added power. About 1/4-mile short of the runway, the airspeed decreased to 60 mph, "presumably because of loss of 10 knot headwind," and the airplane stalled. The airplane descended into a grass field short of the runway, and came to rest upright.

The winds recorded at a nearby airport, about the time of the accident, were from 040 degrees at 5 knots.