The private pilot reported that, shortly after touchdown during landing at the airport in Bozeman, Montana, the experimental, amateur-built tailwheel equipped airplane immediately veered to the left.
The pilot corrected with right rudder and applied engine power, however, the STOL King subsequently ground looped, during which the right main landing gear strut collapsed.
The pilot, who was the builder of the airplane, reported that this was the second time the gear struts had bent on this airplane.
Following the first event, the pilot had reinforced the landing gear strut, but he believed the design of the main landing gear was unable to withstand the routine stresses of landing.
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing.
NTSB Identification: WPR17LA080
This March 2017 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Maybe what he needed was training on how to land a tailwheel aircraft. They do not mention his experience level in that landing gear configuration but I would say it is suspect. This was a professionally designed aircraft (or so we hope) and not a one off creation so with a reported six airframes flying (per Wikipedia) a deficient landing gear design would have been revealed by now. This is a fairly clear example of poor pilot skill and not poor design. And by the way a poorly conceived change to the gear for strengths sake could actually have negative a negative impact on ground reactions and proper load pathways.
Well…the gear is usually designed to be unable to withstand the routine stresses of groundlooping. That’s not necessarily a bad design.