A stinson L-5 pilot lost control while landing in a slight crosswind and ground looped the aircraft ...

Narrative:

On short final I saw the wind sock showed a 90 degree wind from the left at about 5 knots or so. During landing roll after a smooth full stall landing the airplane began to drift left. I applied right rudder and some left aileron; which did not stop the left turning. I then applied right brake which did not stop the left turning tendency resulting in a ground loop hitting the right wing tip and engine cowling and one blade of the wood prop. The gear on the stinson aircraft hangs way down during flight and compresses about two feet when the aircraft is fully on its gear. I suspect that because the landing was smooth and light; the gear was not compressed all the way and the right tire must have dug in at a slight angle exacerbating the left turning weathervaning tendency. I had all the right rudder and enough right brake to skid the tire; but was unable to stop the left turning ground loop. To prevent this I would recommend landing the stinson L-5 firmly so that the airplane transitions quickly to fully compressed gear legs. I understand there is a cable retrofit on some stinsons that prevent the gear from hanging down so far. This aircraft was not equipped with that retrofit.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Stinson L-5 pilot lost control while landing in a slight crosswind and ground looped the aircraft resulting in striking the prop and engine cowl. Landing gear strut extension may have contributed to the aircraft weathervaning.

Narrative: On short final I saw the wind sock showed a 90 degree wind from the left at about 5 knots or so. During landing roll after a smooth full stall landing the airplane began to drift left. I applied right rudder and some left aileron; which did not stop the left turning. I then applied right brake which did not stop the left turning tendency resulting in a ground loop hitting the right wing tip and engine cowling and one blade of the wood prop. The gear on the Stinson aircraft hangs way down during flight and compresses about two feet when the aircraft is fully on its gear. I suspect that because the landing was smooth and light; the gear was not compressed all the way and the right tire must have dug in at a slight angle exacerbating the left turning weathervaning tendency. I had all the right rudder and enough right brake to skid the tire; but was unable to stop the left turning ground loop. To prevent this I would recommend landing the Stinson L-5 firmly so that the airplane transitions quickly to fully compressed gear legs. I understand there is a cable retrofit on some Stinsons that prevent the gear from hanging down so far. This aircraft was not equipped with that retrofit.

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	1334094
Time
Date	201602
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Military
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Main Gear Tire
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 90 Flight Crew Total 26000 Flight Crew Type 25
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

A stinson L-5 pilot lost control while landing in a slight crosswind and ground looped the aircraft resulting in striking the prop and engine cowl. Landing gear strut extension may have contributed to the aircraft weathervaning.