flion
Well Known Member
Not to steal Todd's thunder; this is several weeks old anyway. I've waited this long while dealing with the FAA and insurance and I still don't want to get into details or speculation; I promise I'll give a better account once all the dust has settled. Anyway: a few weeks ago we flew a formation flight for a friend's memorial - two -6As and a Bonanza. We pilot's discussed the weather, windy and gusty, and decided that we could fly a loose formation safely, so we did (and it went fine). It was too gusty to safely fly a formation landing, so we proceeded independently to the pattern; I was the third. It was pretty bumpy and there was a strong crosswind component, but everything seemed well within capabilities of myself and the aircraft. On flare I caught a trailing gust and the aircraft bounced but still had flying speed (I was carrying excess just for that reason), so I maintained control and let it settle back. On rollout, just as I was about to shut off the boost pump, etc., a gust picked me up and, with no elevator authority, I was a passenger as the RV impacted the runway slightly nose down. It was enough to catch the new-style fork and drag the nose gear under. The engine was at idle so the prop immediately stopped and the plane went up on the nosegear, spinner, left wheel, and left wingtip. Since I had already slowed on rollout, the aircraft did not have enough momentum to pitch over and merely slid a short distance before settling back on the mains. I informed tower that the occupants were Ok and shut off all the systems before exiting the aircraft.
The aircraft was towed to the hangar and I took a couple of days before I went out to survey the damage. The prop was not bad and everything else looked pretty intact, which was a bit deceptive. I discovered that the nose wheel pant had penetrated the cowling, but not so badly it couldn't be repaired. The wheels and axles are fine, though that left wheel pant made the mains look bent and got me to check them carefully. The left wheel pant and it's mounting plates are history but everything else on the mains are fine. Obviously the nose gear is gone, but surprisingly the rear of the pant and the wheel/axle are good; once it curled, the nose gear protected the wheel. Other than the penetration, the cowling is fine. The spinner and left wingtip are lightly scratched but easily repairable.
Once the cowling was off, it was apparent the engine mount had been hurt. The lower right middle spool (I hope that makes sense) had moved back about half an inch and had obviously moved vertically momentarily enough to tear the firewall about an inch and shear the bracket behind it (which saved the bottom skin). After removing the mount, it was clear I'd have to replace the firewall; it turned out the mount was too badly damaged around the nosegear socket to be repaired, so it will be replaced. After removing the firewall, only four of the stiffeners need to be replaced (the two diagonals, bottom, and the middle right) and the brackets had merely sheared their rivets so the bottom skin, stiffeners, and brackets are Ok. The engine has just been torn down and pronounced probably undamaged; I'll know more soon but it looks like the worst has been dodged. Now it's time to put it all back together, and I hope to be flying before the end of summer. It seems a great opportunity to make a couple of changes I've been meaning to tackle and to finally get the aircraft painted, so there's a little silver lining.
I don't want to re-ignite the nosegear discussion; I have the new-style and I don't think it was a primary factory in this incident anyway. As I said before, until I'm done dealing with the aftermath, I don't want to discuss it more anyway; you'll just have to wait patiently for awhile. I promise I'll make an update on it later.
For now, it's not a big deal. The RV will fly again, and soon. No one was hurt and it looks like most of the big-dollar bullets have been dodged. The worst part will be riveting the firewall back on; the poor person doing the bucking will have a miserable job of it.
The aircraft was towed to the hangar and I took a couple of days before I went out to survey the damage. The prop was not bad and everything else looked pretty intact, which was a bit deceptive. I discovered that the nose wheel pant had penetrated the cowling, but not so badly it couldn't be repaired. The wheels and axles are fine, though that left wheel pant made the mains look bent and got me to check them carefully. The left wheel pant and it's mounting plates are history but everything else on the mains are fine. Obviously the nose gear is gone, but surprisingly the rear of the pant and the wheel/axle are good; once it curled, the nose gear protected the wheel. Other than the penetration, the cowling is fine. The spinner and left wingtip are lightly scratched but easily repairable.
Once the cowling was off, it was apparent the engine mount had been hurt. The lower right middle spool (I hope that makes sense) had moved back about half an inch and had obviously moved vertically momentarily enough to tear the firewall about an inch and shear the bracket behind it (which saved the bottom skin). After removing the mount, it was clear I'd have to replace the firewall; it turned out the mount was too badly damaged around the nosegear socket to be repaired, so it will be replaced. After removing the firewall, only four of the stiffeners need to be replaced (the two diagonals, bottom, and the middle right) and the brackets had merely sheared their rivets so the bottom skin, stiffeners, and brackets are Ok. The engine has just been torn down and pronounced probably undamaged; I'll know more soon but it looks like the worst has been dodged. Now it's time to put it all back together, and I hope to be flying before the end of summer. It seems a great opportunity to make a couple of changes I've been meaning to tackle and to finally get the aircraft painted, so there's a little silver lining.
I don't want to re-ignite the nosegear discussion; I have the new-style and I don't think it was a primary factory in this incident anyway. As I said before, until I'm done dealing with the aftermath, I don't want to discuss it more anyway; you'll just have to wait patiently for awhile. I promise I'll make an update on it later.
For now, it's not a big deal. The RV will fly again, and soon. No one was hurt and it looks like most of the big-dollar bullets have been dodged. The worst part will be riveting the firewall back on; the poor person doing the bucking will have a miserable job of it.
