Glassair II-RG pilot reported damaging the landing gear during a go-around following a wake turbulence encounter.

Narrative

Encountered right roll due to wake turbulence during flare. After recognizing the wake encounter; I immediately initiated a go around. During the transition; the right main gear momentarily touched down with a side load on the gear. I elected to leave the gear down which still indicated 3 green lights. When level at pattern altitude; I evaluated the probability of damage to the gear as a result of the encounter. The drift during touchdown did not seem to be more than light and there was no concern that the gear was damaged because the gear indicator remained green. Even though there was no apparent damage; I elected to NOT cycle the gear and decided to make a normal landing. The landing on the mains was soft squeaker and I gently lowered the nose as speed bled down. The landing roll appeared normal for several seconds until the right main gear collapsed. The aircraft skidded right and came to a gradual stop in the grassy clear area on the right side of the runway. There was no damage to the nose gear which averted a prop strike. The aircraft sustained minor damage overall. The worst damage was the main gear down locks; brake caliper; and scrape damage to the right flap and right wingtip. The cause was due to damage to the downlock hinge elbow as a result of the side load at touchdown. The Glasair RG down locks are only 3/8' thick aluminum which was thin enough to crack but the touchdown was not enough to cause it to completely fail. I plan to update my POH to include an emergency procedure in the event any side load is encountered during landing. The go around was absolutely the right thing to do. However; my new procedure will be to circle overhead and call for ARFF assistance. The better decision would be to plan to initially not use any brakes until the aircraft slows to a manageable speed. I think the gear collapsed when I initiated braking too early on landing rollout. It would have been nice to use the entire length of the runway and have ARFF standing by. Since this is an experimental aircraft; I might engage the Glasair community to redesign the down lock elbow to make it stronger. The stock kit design is too flimsy and there have been many incidents such as this that can be mitigated.