Double Eagle II Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Albuquerque, New Mexico 87121
Tuesady, September 25, 2012 14:15 MDT

Enroute during a day VFR cross country flight, the expected weather conditions deteriorated near the intended destination airport. The reported weather included convective activity with wind from 300 degrees at 24 knots, gusting to 35 knots. Convective cells were visible around the airport. The pilot radioed his intentions to land on runway 22 and entered a right downwind. The pilot said that his weather radar was indicating that conditions had worsened. The wind had increased significantly, it was raining, and the pilot started to see lightning on his weather radar instruments. The pilot considered going to another airport, however, he thought that the surrounding weather gave him no other options but to land. On final approach, the crosswind was much greater than expected so the pilot executed a go-around. It appeared, according to the windsock, that runway 35 was a better choice for landing. The tower air traffic controller cleared the pilot to land on runway 35. The pilot lined up on final approach toward the left edge of the runway because the wind was still gusting a lot (about 70 degrees from the left), and he knew that there would be some drift. He carried a bit more airspeed on final in an attempt to maintain better control to touchdown. The airplane was in a hard slip/crab into the wind with the left wing low. Passing over the runway numbers, the airplane's nose was faced into the wind and was still being pushed across the runway. It seemed that all was going well, and just before the pilot thought the airplane was going to touch down, without notice, the left wing lifted the and the airplane rolled into about 80 degrees right bank. The airplane was blown nearly feet off the runway and the pilot immediately applied full power. After rolling to the left, the airplane settled and slammed into the ground, bounced, and became airborne again before impacting the ground in a nose down attitude. The airplane slid about 75 feet before coming to rest. The fuselage, wings, and empennage sustained structural damage. No mechanical anomalies were found.

The loss of control during landing/flare resulting from the pilot's decision to land in high wind conditions. Contributing to the accident was the gusting wind and sudden wind shift during a critical phase of landing.