Incident Overview
During a personal cross-country flight, the pilot-in-command (PIC) arrived at his destination, an unfamiliar airport. Before landing, he circled the field three times, observing trees at both ends of the runway and a crosswind approximately 60 degrees to the active runway.
Landing and Decision to Turn
After touchdown, during the landing rollout, the pilot felt he would be unable to stop before running off the runway. He elected to turn to the right onto the soft shoulder rather than continue straight ahead into the trees and a fence.
Sequence of Events
When the aircraft departed the hard-surface runway, the left main landing gear struck the soft surface and broke off. The separated gear then struck the wing, the flap, and subsequently the fuselage near the horizontal stabilator. The propeller and the wing tip then contacted the terrain.
Damage
The aircraft sustained damage to the left main landing gear, wing, flap, fuselage near the horizontal stabilator, propeller, and wing tip.