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Message
Hi John,
Sorry to hear about that 1/8" of expensive material
remaining on the runway. Perhaps this will make you feel less
alone. A weekend or so ago,Saturday, Feb 12, I was flying back
from a flyin up in Northern NC. The FBO advertised he would reduce the
price of fuel by the highest wind gust recorded by the AWOS before noon.
Well, after filling up on 19 cents/gallon cheaper fuel, I headed back to the air
patch.
Back at the home airpatch, everything was "A OK"
landing on runway 22. Had just crossed a line of small trees sitting down
in a gully about 100 ft from the end of the runway with 80 MPH IAS which is
plenty for an RV. Well within the 100 ft it took me to past that line of
trees until I smashed down onto the runway marker - I very suddenly lost 20
MPH of airspeed. AND they are correct! without airspeed its
just a rock. I estimate I fell from approx 10-12 feet in a stalled
condition - I KNEW it was going to hurt - but fortunately had the presence of
mind of haul back on the stick to the stop. I don't think it
slowed the descent a bit - but it kept the nose gear AND my new $$
prop up in the air. After the first impact (yes, john there was more than
one), the aircraft rebounded to what felt like about 6 - 8 feet
(witnesses of which fortunately there was only one other than myself) concurred
with the estimate.
Recalling several RV nose gear aircraft which have
flipped due to the nose gear hitting first and folding under, I kept the stick
fully to the rear and gritted my teeth for the second impact.
Wham! As the aircraft rebounded this time I felt/hear the rudder
drag the asphalt due to my keeping the nose high. The remaining bounces
were minor and I rolled another approx 100 ft and turned around at the 300ft
point sort of amazed that the aircraft was still on an even keel.
Damage inspection revealed that I had indeed
scrapped the rear tie down eyebolt backwards into the rudder bottom (fiberglass
fairing) and the rear 1/3 of the bottom of the rudder had the fiberglass
abraded. After my nerves settled
a bit, I notice that the rudder while it had no damage(other than to the
fiberglass fairing) it was harder than normal to move. Close inspection
revealed that when the rudder was moved instead of the eyebolt hinge pivoting
around the attachment bolt - the bolt was turning. Not good. No
other damage was evident.
I took off the rudder today and confirmed that the bearing races in the
three eyebolts used as the hinges were all three frozen. So today I
replaced all three and the rudder is freely swinging again. The repair of
the rudder bottom is going to take a bit more time.
But, I did manage to keep my $$ prop untouched and more importantly didn't
flip the aircraft on its back.
So sorry to hear about you trimming your prop - sounds like you had the
nose a bit high also -but not necessarily a good thing in your canard -
but just remember things could have always ended worst.
My conclusion was that I :
1. Had not allowed sufficient margin for the gusty wind
conditions
2. Trees and hangers that were on the upwind side of my touch
down point may have perturbed or blocked the flow so that when I got
within their shadow (leeward side),where I lost
considerable airspeed very quickly
3. I should have paid more attention to other pilots who have
reported "down drafts" in that area (including one who reminded me today,
that he had touched down 20 ft short of the runway on that same approach
with his wife on board (for her first flight with him) and he claimed he still
had above stall airspeed when he hit the grass. But, hey I had been flying
out that airport for 4 years and never had encountered one (well, until Feb 12
that is {:>))
4. Every once in a while everything stacks up
NOT-IN-YOUR-FAVOR!
Remember if you can walk away "its a good
landing", if the aircraft will fly again "its a great landing", if it will
fly again without repair "its an Outstanding Landing"!
Best Regards
Ed A
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 9:11
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] John's prop
shop
John (cut my prop back 1/8 inch today using the runway as a
grinding tool)
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