LAX07CA013

During the landing rollout, the left main landing gear wheel dropped into a hole and the landing gear collapsed, which caused structural damage to the left wing and fuselage of the airplane. The pilot said he was flying in a mountain area looking for spots to conduct a ground training exercise for a group with which he is associated. The pilot decided to land. The landing area chosen by the pilot was a meadow on top of a mountain, with 2-foot-tall grass that masked the roughness of the terrain and holes that were in the ground. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

On October 6, 2006, about 1700 Pacific daylight time, an Aviat Aircraft Inc, A-1A (Husky), N40AW, had the left landing gear collapse during the landing rollout on uneven mountainous terrain on Red Mountain near Woodlake, California. The owner operated the airplane under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The pilot, the sole occupant, borrowed the airplane for the personal flight, and was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local area flight that departed Visalia Municipal Airport (VIS), Visalia, California, about 1630, with the accident site as the intended destination. The global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the accident site were 35 degrees 42 minutes north latitude and 118 degrees 33 minutes west longitude.

In the pilot's written statement to the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot reported that he was flying around the foothills looking for waypoints for an upcoming flight training exercise. He landed on a meadow on Red Mountain. During the landing rollout the left main landing gear hit a hole and collapsed. The left wing struck the ground, the airplane rotated about 20 degrees to the left, and the propeller struck the ground. The airplane sustained structural damage to the left wing and the left side of the fuselage near the landing gear. The pilot reported no mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Flight Standards District Office, Fresno, California, was notified of the incident on October 13, 2006. An FAA airworthiness inspector responded to the site on October 19, 2006, and determined there was structural damage to the airplane. According to the FAA inspector, the landing was done on an upslope, and 2-foot-tall grass surrounded the area .

The Safety Board investigator-in-charge (IIC) was notified about the damage to the airplane on October 20, 2006, and upgraded the incident to an accident.