Accident Details
On July 1, 2018, at about 2010 central daylight time, a Cessna 180 single-engine airplane, registration N2469C, was substantially damaged while landing at Rusty Allen Airport (RYW) in Lago Vista, Texas. The airline transport pilot and a passenger were not injured. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 for a personal flight. Day visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight departed Childress Municipal Airport (CDS), Childress, Texas, about 1740, with RYW as the intended destination.
Landing Sequence
According to the pilot, the surface wind at RYW was from 120° magnetic at 7 knots, gusting 17 knots, when he entered the traffic pattern for runway 15. While on the downwind leg, the wind direction became variable between 090° and 170° magnetic. The pilot made a normal approach for a three-point landing with a left crosswind correction. During the landing flare, the airplane rolled left and landed hard on the left main landing gear. The airplane bounced, and the pilot was unable to regain roll control before a second hard landing on the left main landing gear. After a second bounce, the left main landing gear spring separated from the fuselage on the third contact with the runway. The airplane subsequently ground-looped to the left and came to rest heading about 180° from the original runway direction. The left main wing spar was substantially damaged when the left wingtip impacted the runway.
Post-Accident Examination
The fractured left main landing gear spring was examined by the National Transportation Safety Board Materials Laboratory. The examination revealed a fracture surface with a relatively flat surface and a distinct shear lip along the periphery. A chevron pattern indicated the direction of crack propagation from a thumbnail-shaped initiation point. The fatigue crack was located adjacent to where the landing gear fixation hardware contacted the landing gear spring. The initiation point exhibited features consistent with a multiple-origin fatigue crack. The approximate dimensions of the fatigue crack were 0.14 inch wide and 0.04 inch deep.
Maintenance History
The pilot stated that the airplane logbooks were not complete; however, there was no documented work on the left landing gear since the logbooks began in 1993. Based on available information, the pilot estimated that the airplane had accumulated a total service time of about 4,101 hours. Due to a lack of complete maintenance documentation, it is unknown if the left main landing gear spring had been replaced or overhauled since new.