Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 11.7; Flight Crew Total 1740; Flight Crew Type 27.1
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
Aircraft; Human Factors
Returning from pleasure flight with light winds and favoring Runway 11; and upon first landing attempt; I heard grinding when I lowered tail. I applied power and went around. I contacted the Airport Manager to visually inspect the tailwheel condition during a low pass. He verified that the tailwheel was missing; but didn't tell me that the forks were missing also. During the second landing attempt the aircraft tracked straight until the remainder of the tailwheel assembly touched down. The lower tail attitude (due to missing forks) startled me and I was slow to correct the right turn and ground-looped. The left lower wing barely touched the ground and the left main wheel dug into the pavement. There was no visible damage to the aircraft other than cosmetic. We then cleared the aircraft from the runway. Earlier in the day I had landed with winds variable between 320 and 030 and 8G17 knots.  The tailwheel shimmied severely and I checked the pressure when I returned to the hangar and increased it from 40 PSI to 50 PSI. I assume the bolt end sheered during the shimmy and that caused the wheel and forks to fall off during takeoff. After severe shimmy in the future I should fully inspect the whole tailwheel assembly.
Tail wheel bi-plane pilot experiences a grinding noise as the tail wheel is lowered to the runway after landing and a go around is initiated. A ground observer reports that the tail wheel is missing. During the next landing a ground loop occurs and a wing tip contacts the runway.