20020816020059A

(-23) During descent from the east to land at santa paula (szp), the pilot encountered expected low ceilings. No report was available for szp, but was reported and forecast for nearby cma and oxr. While maneuvering under the ceiling in the santa clara river valley, the pilot inadvertently flew into instrument conditions, and immediately started a climbing turn on instruments with the intention of getting VFR on top of the status layer. The aircraft struck an object hard enough to activate the ELT, but remained airborne. When he broke out on top, the pilot discovered that the right main landing gear had apparently been torn off the airplane by the impact. Radio communications became impossible because the ELT signal masked all other VHF signals. The pilot decided to make a landing off airport. During his landing in the dry river bed, the left landing gear attachment was damaged and the right wing tip and the propeller received damage. No injuries were received by the pilot, who was the only occupant of the aircraft. (.19) on August 16, 2002, about 1100 pacific daylight time, a Cessna 185-A, N4145Y, made a precautionary landing in a dry riverbed due to low cloud ce ilings near Fillmore, California. The airplane was operated by the pilot/owner under the provisions of 14 CFR part 91. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed for the cross-country flight that departed the fresno yosemite international airport (fat), fresno, California, about 0930. The flight was scheduled to terminate at the santa paula airport (szp), santa paula, California. According to the pilot, he checked weather at fat prior to departure. Because szp does not report weather, he checked nearby airports: camarillo (cma), and oxnard (oxr), California. He indicated that the weather at cma and oxr was broken to overcast; however, from previous experience he believed that szp would be clear. The pilot felt that it would be a safe flight to make. When he arrived in the area, the clouds were lower than he had anticipated. He made a climbing right turn to get out of the clouds when he heard a loud bang. The pilot reported that the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) activated. After he climbed out of the clouds he looked out the windows to make sure that the airplane was intact. When he looked out the right window, he saw that the right landing gear was missing. The pilot stated that he would not be able to land at szp with missing landing gear because the runway width was small. He chose to land in the riverbed. On the landing rollout the left landing gear struck a stump. The airplane came to rest right side up.