Sail Plane
Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Glider
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60; Flight Crew Total 2000; Flight Crew Type 1500
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Human Factors; Aircraft
I was practicing short-field landings that afternoon at my local airport in my motorized glider. A passenger; a fellow pilot; not rated to fly the glider; occupied the right seat. I had taken off and landed a few times; staying in the pattern. All landings were normal. On the final landing the landing gear collapsed; the prop struck the pavement and the ship slid on the pavement on the broken gear legs; stopping in a few hundred feet. A couple of landings that day were relatively hard; although not the hardest landings that I have done; without damage. The damage is apparently limited to the gear legs; the propeller (which struck the pavement as a result of the gear collapse) and a small scuff of the composite skin on the underside of the left wing near the tip (where the wing slid for approximately 50 FT on the runway.) According to FAR 49-830; the event does not qualify as an accident or incident that is required to be reported to the NTSB.
Although not the hardest landing the reporter has made the impact while practicing short field landings was sufficient to cause the landing gear of his motorized glider to collapse causing some additional damage to the glider but no injuries to the occupants.