Here is a lesson to all of us builders.

 

Right after my article on aircraft noise and acoustics came out in the April Sport Aviation, I had a number of calls from folks about insulating their aircraft.  One person that called was Richard who had a 6 year old RV 6 but had put a brand new IO 360 with constant speed prop on it.  When I found out that he was in Hayward, I offered to go visit on the way home from work.  When I arrived, he said that he wouldn't have been there this afternoon except that the air was rough and due to the low drag of the RV-6, it would normally be in the yellow arc (speedwise) when he was doing normall full throttle, high MP breakin.  We talked and I came up with a few ideas for making his plane quiter. 

 

The next day a friend called to say one of our mutual friends was in the City of Hayward maintenance yard when an experimental aircraft crashed into it after an engine failure.  I listened to the news and sure enough, it was Richard who had been out first thing in the morning to get some smooth air when the engine quit at 1000' AGL.  He got it turned around but of course couldn't make the airport.  He could have landed in a school yard and had more flat terrain but he chose to put it in the city yard, loaded with trucks and equipment rather than risk kids getting injured.  Richard was very fortunate in that he only broke both ankles, and that after hitting a big Ford flat bed truck.  When I called him that night, he was in the hospital and pretty down.  He had liability insurance but no hull insurance and the plane was pretty much totalled.  My heart went out to him.

 

It was then about a month later when I stoped by our FAA FSDO that I met FAA inspector Denny Pollard.  As an aside, I asked if he knew of the crash in Hayward.  He said that he was the one that did the investigation into the crash.

What he found was that the fuel filters were completely clogged and the engine died from fuel starvation.  Now I'm not absolutely sure of the details but I think Richard had said that he had put in new tanks.  Everything looked great on the wing so if the new tanks were installed, they were painted to match.

 

The lesson I learned is that when I start running my new engine, I plan to check the filters on a regular basis to make DAMN sure, I don't have old carbon and fiberglass dust in the tank and that NOTHING is in the tank but air and fuel.

 

I wish the best for Richard.  I offered to help him pull the salvagable equipment from the aircraft and that he could probably find a project plane out there but he very sorrowfully told me that at 72, he didn't think he had another project in him.  I felt like crap. He was great guy and I hope that perhaps his lesson can help someone else some day.

 

You might want to note that Denny Pollard also has published a new book on aircraft inspection from Trafford publishing.  It is very thorough and he covers EVERYTHING.  Denny works at the Oakland FSDO.

 

You guys fly careful!

 

Dan Newland