Aeronca champ pilot experiences a brake and gear anomaly during landing resulting in a locked left b...

Narrative:

Landing in an aeronca champ with a 5-6 knot cross wind. Touched wheels at 70 mph. Lifted off the grass to settle into a three point attitude. Dropped from about two feet. Less than in past landings. As soon as all three wheels touched down; it felt like the left brake was locked. The cross wind was from the left. I used full aileron and rudder deflection to the right. The plane was still veering to the left. I then used full right brake. Scary at that speed. Even with full right brake; the plane was still veering to the left. When the plane had turned 90 degrees to the left; there was a boat in the current path; I released right pressure on the rudder. The tail came around quickly at that point. The wings were level until the plane stopped completely. With the plane completely stopped; pointing toward the field; I added a little power to taxi back on the runway. At this point; the left gear gave way in slow motion. The left wing tip slowly came to a rest on the ground. The ground loop circle was about 75-100 ft diameter. It could have been pilot error but it doesn't sound like a normal ground loop. The left gear collapsed completely. In a normal ground loop; I think the outside gear would collapse; not the inside. The right wing never came close to the ground. I think the oleo gear attachment point broke; causing the large diameter slow acting ground loop.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Aeronca Champ pilot experiences a brake and gear anomaly during landing resulting in a locked left brake and a ground loop to the left. After the aircraft is stopped an attempt to taxi on to the runway results in the left gear failing in slow motion.

Narrative: Landing in an Aeronca champ with a 5-6 knot cross wind. Touched wheels at 70 mph. Lifted off the grass to settle into a three point attitude. Dropped from about two feet. Less than in past landings. As soon as all three wheels touched down; it felt like the left brake was locked. The cross wind was from the left. I used full aileron and rudder deflection to the right. The plane was still veering to the left. I then used full right brake. Scary at that speed. Even with full right brake; the plane was still veering to the left. When the plane had turned 90 Degrees to the left; there was a boat in the current path; I released right pressure on the rudder. The tail came around quickly at that point. The wings were level until the plane stopped completely. With the plane completely stopped; pointing toward the field; I added a little power to taxi back on the runway. At this point; the left gear gave way in slow motion. The left wing tip slowly came to a rest on the ground. The Ground loop circle was about 75-100 FT diameter. It could have been pilot error but it doesn't sound like a normal ground loop. The left gear collapsed completely. In a normal ground loop; I think the outside gear would collapse; not the inside. The right wing never came close to the ground. I think the oleo gear attachment point broke; causing the large diameter slow acting ground loop.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1229924
Time
Date	201501
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Champion Citabria 7ECA
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Main Gear
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 104.4 Flight Crew Type 42.7
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft Ground Excursion Runway Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Aeronca champ pilot experiences a brake and gear anomaly during landing resulting in a locked left brake and a ground loop to the left. After the aircraft is stopped an attempt to taxi on to the runway results in the left gear failing in slow motion.