C182 pilot diverting to an airport to avoid weather experienced wind shear and unexpected tailwind gusts during landing resulting in an unstable approach; long landing and blown tire.

Date: 2025-06 · Aircraft: Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG · Phase: landing

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|ground-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control|inflight-event-encounter-loss-of-aircraft-control|inflight-event-encounter-unstabilized-approach|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence

Synopsis

C182 pilot diverting to an airport to avoid weather experienced wind shear and unexpected tailwind gusts during landing resulting in an unstable approach; long landing and blown tire.

Narrative

I was operating my Cessna 182 on a VFR flight from ZZZ1 to ZZZ2 with one passenger who is a fellow pilot on board. Bad weather in thunderstorms and rain along our route of travel was building and slowly but surely closing in our destination airport. As we approached our destination; we were forced to adjust our flight track south around a large growing thunderstorm. We made contact with ZZZ Tower and asked to use their airspace to maneuver south of some rain we could see and then around to the north to our destination on the back side of the rain. We were approved to do so. Upon turning north and still in ZZZ's airspace. We encountered severe turbulence at 2500 MSL and aircraft performance increases due the storms front edge now moving south instead of east that were not conducive to continued flight. We immediately turned around and requested landing at ZZZ. The tower cleared us to make a straight in landing for runway XXL. It was immediately apparent with the huge increase in performance we were experiencing that we could not descend. I noticed the wind was coming from the north now according to my Garmin G5 avionics at a velocity of 20 Kts. I inquired with the tower; who stated the airport winds were 170 @ 5 knots. As we were on a 1 mile final and now too high to land; the now moderate turbulence had died down a bit. I requested to the tower for runway XY due to this; and tower told me that they were unable due to other traffic. I informed the tower that I would then need to make a short approach to avoid the weather coming in very quickly from the north; only 1 mile away as I experienced; and I was approved for a left descending 360 back to the downwind for XXL and a short approach. On the downwind leg; the severe turbulence was encountered again before even reaching the north end of the pavement. I elected to make short approach and I added full flaps at 90MPH while going to idle power; and turned for the runway. The severe wind event we were flying in wasn't allowing the airplane to descend much at all without the airspeed increasing. I was writhing my flap speed at 93MPH but couldn't afford more airspeed increase to prevent a flap overspeed. I placed the airplane in a left hand slip and brought it down to the runway at mid field which would typically be significantly more runway than needed in a calm wind or with any head wind situation. I regularly operate the airplane off a 2500 [foot] grass strip with very sufficient margins. I was carrying about 15 MPH extra airspeed due to the tail wind I was experiencing. In the flair; I noticed late; that the Garmin was now indicating a 20 MPH tail wind. I touched down very long with about 2000' of runway remaining; which again would typically be more than 2.5 times the needed runway for this airplane on a normal day. But my ground speed was higher due the tail wind and the wind event was very severe requiring heavy aileron and elevator inputs to keep the airplane on the runway and straight.It was apparent to me that a go around was no longer a suitable or safe option and with what I now believed to be severe tailwind shear event; a huge decrease in performance could result in a catastrophic outcome on an attempted departure in these conditions. So I mashed on the brakes knowing I had sufficient runway to stop; but also knowing the tires would skid. The right tire then blew out with about 1200 feet of runway remaining. I held centerline and brought the airplane to an easier stop and maintaining centerline control with 800' of runway remaining. I notified the tower of the blow tire and my inability to exit the runway and needing assistance of a dolly. Tower sent the airport ops truck which was nearby and requested and was granted to shut the airplane off and go off radios to work with airport ops.It took about 45 mins to locate the dolly; retrieve it; and get the airplane on the dolly and clear of the runway under its own power. I informed the tower over the radio when the runway was clear and received taxi instructions to taxi the aircraft slowly on the dolly The tire had spun in the rim; which caused the valve stem to spin and shear off causing the blowout. There was no other damage to the aircraft or airport. Neither myself or my passenger were injured in any way.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.