|
|
Hi George,
Yours is the latest message I've received expressing your thankfulness
that I wasn't seriously hurt so I will reply all of them here.
First, thanks to all of you. This list is a great community and
provides a tremendous amount of support. And a special thanks to Lynn
for the encouraging words about repairing the BD-4.
I spent several hours talking to the nice man from the FAA yesterday,
then several hours trying to get an airplane with no mains on a flat
bed trailer. Didn't sleep much Saturday night either.
I have found that my perception of what I was doing didn't match the
reality. The primary problem was that I misjudged the flare on my
landing and bounced pretty hard 2 or 3 times. I then turned what was
going to be a really bad landing into something that may be an incident
or may be an accident. They will tell me later. I did this by
deciding the landing was really coming out bad and I would be better
off going around. So, I applied full power. My perception was that I
was flying in ground effect just off the runway. In fact, I think the
wheels were on the ground most of the time. The plane left the runway
on the north side (RWY 26) and I steered back to the left. The ground
slopes off on the south side of the runway and I thought if I had
another couple of feet of air under me I had a better chance of getting
back to flying speed.
Yesterday, I was looking over the path I had taken to where the plane
came to a stop. There were tire tracks in the weeds and I followed
them back all the way to the runway. So the reality was that for that
whole time the wheels were on the ground. I could have pulled power
and done a lot less damage.
I will wait a few days before making any firm decision about rebuilding
the plane. If I do, I think I will make it a tricycle gear again.
That will give me one less problem while I rebuild my piloting skills.
Attached is a photo of my wheels up landing. Can I log some retract
time! Probably not.
Bob W.
On Sun, 4 Mar 2007 22:33:46 -0800 (PST)
George Graham <rx7ez@yahoo.com> wrote:
> My heart goes out to Mr White, to suffer such a catastrophy.
>
> I had a similar landing many years ago, on our first New York to Florida trip.
> The winds in South Carolina were severe, and I didn't add enough speed to my landing, my bird really fell from the sky bouncing hard, I didn't think fast enough to go around, and pushed the nose down instead. The second bounce was worse than the first, and the nose gear linkage broke collapsing the nose gear. The main gear legs spread so much that the brake bleeders were ground off the calipers. The main gear attach bolts were bent. My wife had black and blue marks from the shoulder harness. That landing was on a Saturday, and we ddn't get the bird home until the next Saturday.
>
> But then I read about a similar landing in Southern Ontario, that airplane had a fuel tank in front of the instrument panel, and the nose gear linkage punctured it. Both persons on board perished in the fire.
>
> How lucky we were to be alive and able to repair the damage.
>
>
> George Graham
> Sarasota Florida
> Mazda RX7 EZ
>
> ---------------------------------
> Don't pick lemons.
> See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
--
N93BD - Rotary Powered BD-4 - http://www.bob-white.com
First Flight: 11/23/2006 7:50AM - 3.3 Hours Total Time
Cables for your rotary installation - http://www.roblinphoto.com/shop/
|
|