Jefferson County International Airport: Port Townsend, Washington

Airport is located 4 miles south west of Port Townsend.

The pilot decided to make a straight-in visual-flight-rules approach to the destination airport after a flight of less than 10 minutes from his point of departure. There was departing traffic at the non-controlled destination airport and the pilot said that he became distracted while discussing that traffic with his passenger. The pilot, who said he normally makes sure that the gear is down while on downwind, did not use a checklist and failed to lower the gear prior to landing. The subsequent contact with the runway surface resulted in damage to a fuselage bulkhead.
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The airplane ground looped on landing. The pilot stated that she made normal approach to the destination runway. She noted a slight crosswind from the right, but configured the airplane to compensate for the conditions. The airplane touched down on the runway centerline and almost immediately thereafter, the pilot experienced a loss of control. The airplane veered to the right and she attempted to abort the landing by adding full power. The airplane momentarily began to depart, but subsequently banked left and the left wing contacted the ground. The pilot opined that the airplane encountered a gust of wind following touchdown. She reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine.
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The airplane was on a company activated visual flight rules (VFR) flight plan over ocean water. The pilot said the weather conditions deteriorated with a lowering ceiling and visibility. He said that the water condition was glassy smooth with no visual definition, and this condition made it increasingly difficult to be sure he was maintaining forward visibility. He began to turn back to better VFR conditions, but conditions worsened; he believed that he inadvertently entered a fog bank. He elected to perform a precautionary landing on the water. He said that with no visual definition, he misjudged his altitude, and landed hard. The airplane's fuselage was bent/deformed, the fuselage skin was wrinkled, and the dorsal stabilizer was bent/wrinkled. At 0655, the weather conditions approximately 14 nautical miles north of the precautionary landing site were: wind calm; visibility 7 statute miles with shallow fog; cloud condition 900 feet scattered, 2,000 feet scattered, 5,000 feet broken and 20,000 feet broken; temperature 55 degrees Fahrenheit; dew point 54 degrees Fahrenheit; altimeter setting 29.95 inches. The pilot reported that at the time of the attempted landing, the visibility was zero, the wind condition was zero, and the ceiling was zero.