CESSNA 185

Full Narrative

According to the pilot, after flying for nearly 10 minutes he made a normal traffic pattern approach and touched down on the runway. The pilot stated that the initial rollout was without incident. However, seconds after lowering the tail wheel, the airplane encountered a sudden gust of wind from the right, which was like a dust devil swirl of air. At this point in time, the pilot had minimal rudder authority. Despite his efforts to maintain directional control, the airplane's left wing tip contacted the runway, and the airplane rolled off the runway and into a berm. The right wing tip also impacted the ground. The outboard portion of the left wing was bent, and the right wing strut was bent. The pilot indicated that he had no warning of the presence of the dust devil swirl of air, and he did not specify its speed in his accident report. No weather reporting services are available at the airport from which the pilot took off and landed. The pilot reported that the windsock had indicated the wind speed was between 5 and 7 knots. No mechanical malfunctions were reported with the airplane.