On September 13, 1998, approximately 1600 mountain daylight time, a Maule M-5-235C, N9218E, was substantially damaged when the airplane collided with terrain shortly after takeoff from a private airstrip near Mimbres, New Mexico. The private pilot, the sole occupant on board, received serious injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the personal cross-country flight being conducted under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight had just originated. According to the pilot's accident report, he departed a grass airstrip (3,000 feet x 300 feet, dirt), en route to El Paso, Texas. He climbed to 200 feet, maneuvered to the left side of a valley, then made a climbing right turn to head south and through the valley. He encountered "a hard crosswind from the left," and he "turned into the downwind side of this crosswind." The airplane lost altitude and "barely" struck the ground. The landing gear collapsed and the airplane slid 80 feet before colliding with a log-loading machine. Both spars were broken and the wings were bent aft along the fuselage. The pilot wrote: "The accident was entirely my fault and could have been prevented by not turning into the downwind side of the crosswind and/or by attaining more altitude before making the 180 degree turn." The computed density altitude at Deming, New Mexico (elevation 4,312 feet msl), located 44 miles southeast of the accident site, was 7,349 feet msl. The pilot said the elevation of the accident site was 6,200 feet msl. The approximate density altitude at the accident site was computed to be 9,628 feet msl.