SEA99LA091

The pilot reported that during landing roll on runway 31, 'a strong gust of wind hit the plane and lifted it up', and that 'when this happened the wind got under my left wing and lifted it up.' He stated that 'at this point the plane was moving [too] slow to have effective control to counter [the] wind and the right wing scraped the runway.' The pilot reported that no mechanical malfunction or failure was involved. Winds at a nearby airport were reported as southwesterly with gusts up to 21 knots, and a gust factor (gust speed minus sustained wind speed) of 7 to 11 knots, during the time frame of the accident.

On June 19, 1999, approximately 1130 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 180G, N4707U, was substantially damaged when a wingtip contacted the runway during landing at Kalispell City Airport, Kalispell, Montana. The private pilot-in-command, who was the registered owner of the aircraft and its sole occupant at the time, was not injured in the accident. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR 91 personal flight from Missoula, Montana.

The pilot reported that approaching Kalispell, he obtained wind information from Kalispell UNICOM, and that the UNICOM operator reported winds variable at 6 to 8 knots with gusts to 15 knots. The pilot reported that during landing rollout on runway 31, "a strong gust of wind hit the plane and lifted it up." The pilot stated that "when this happened the wind got under my left wing and lifted it up", and that "at this point the plane was moving [too] slow to have effective control to counter [the] wind." The pilot reported that the aircraft's right wing then scraped the runway, damaging the end of the aileron. The pilot stated that he kept the plane going straight on the runway, and that the wind then died down and the plane's left wing then came back down. The pilot indicated on his NTSB accident report that no mechanical malfunction or failure was involved in the accident.

Kalispell City has one runway, 13/31, which is 3,600 feet long, 60 feet wide, and paved. Winds at Glacier Park International Airport, Kalispell, Montana (9 nautical miles north-northeast of Kalispell City Airport) were reported as being from 220 degrees true at 10 knots, gusting to 21 knots, in its 1056 METAR observation, and from 230 degrees true at 11 knots, gusting to 18 knots, in its 1156 METAR observation.