During the landing attempt with a direct left crosswind at the airport in Beaumont, Texas, the pilot heard a pop, and the Maule M-6-235 veered to the right.
He attempted to make a correction to the left to maintain airplane control. He felt the empennage lift and the propeller struck the runway. The right main landing gear collapsed, the right wing struck the runway, and the airplane pivoted around the left main landing gear, coming to rest on the runway.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and wing struts.
According to a mechanic, a post-accident examination revealed fractures to the landing gear structure that were consistent with an abnormal sideload and subsequent ground loop. No other mechanical failures or malfunctions were reported with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
At the time of the accident, the pilot was landing on Runway 34 with wind from 250° at 12 knots and gusting to 16 knots.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing in crosswind conditions, which resulted in a ground loop on the runway.
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This December 2023 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Tinker Toy landing gear. Should be robust enough to take side lodes like this. These quarter-$million toy airplanes deserve better. GA manufacturers are gypping their market with such inferior designs.
Regards/J
Maule a “toy airplane”? Not hardly.
Probably one of the stoutest, highest quality, purpose-built, “bush” aircraft ever made…
Ever flown in, or even seen a Maule? (Besides in the 1981 Burt Reynolds movie “The Cannonball Run”. )
I’m assuming that’s a “No”.
We don’t know the airframe’s history; but given it was flown by an aerial services company doing pipeline patrol, it probably had thousands of hours on it. Maybe it’s a bit fatigued.
We do know the pilot’s crosswind landing technique is suspect, given it somehow generated an “abnormal side load” that then led to a “subsequently ground loop”.
Usually, that would be the other way around: You lose directional control during landing; it develops into a ground loop, and the wheel on the outside of the “loop” is subject to “abnormal side load damage”, that might result in it getting folded under the fuselage.
I think it was a really bad crosswind landing,(BTW; which was 50 degrees off, not ‘direct’), that resulted in a ground loop…and the gear just broke.
But “Tinker Toy Landing Gear”? My advice: You might want to avoid any future road trips to Moultrie, GA.
James Potter: Your ignorance is showing.
“Fractures…consistent with an abnormal side load and subsequent ground loop”? Failure because of ground loop or ground loop because of failure? What does the pilot say?