GAA18CA287 · Maule M 7 235C
Maule M 7 235C · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Gillespie County Airport (T82) to Burnet Municipal Airport/Kate Craddock Field (BMQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA287
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Maule M 7 235C
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-7
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N427LS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gillespie County Airport (T82), Fredericksburg, TXTo Burnet Municipal Airport/Kate Craddock Field (BMQ), Burnet, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2001)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot in the tailwheel-equipped airplane, he attempted a three-point landing with 48° of flaps applied in a strong, left crosswind. He reported that, after landing, the airplane lifted off again, and the left wing lifted. The pilot applied aileron and rudder inputs to counter the left crosswind, but the inputs were ineffective due to the airplane's low airspeed. He applied power to fly out of the gusting left crosswind condition, but the airplane veered right, the right wing struck the ground, and the airplane cartwheeled.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the engine mounts, both wings, and the aft fuselage.
The METAR at the accident airport reported, about the time of the accident, wind from 160° at 12 knots, gusting to 25 knots. The highest wind reported during the observation period was from 190° at 31 knots. The pilot landed the airplane on runway 19.
According to the manufacturer's airplane flight manual, the maximum demonstrated crosswind component was 12 knots, and the flap extension should be limited to 0°. The pilot reported that the accident could have been prevented if he had attempted a wheel landing with less than full flaps.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing in gusting wind conditions and with an incorrect flap configuration.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA287
- Event ID
- 20180519X34200
- Case number
- GAA18CA287
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7e204f1591484f6381f648c110e35bc03ea9b69ed20602c048cd83094be0c5ff; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:12:20.573Z.