RVer's
This morning I was planning on flying to meet up with another RVer who was in Phoenix for the weekend to pick up his RV. He is currently in KC-135 aircraft commander training and out of the state for a while. This was probably the last time I would get a chance to see him until his return in September. I helped him finish building his RV and we have become very good friends.
Our plan was to meet in the sky between Phoenix and Tucson. Everything was on schedule and my run up was uneventful. Our takeoff time was 6:15 and I hit it right on the nose. Did my normal takeoff and turned north on heading. I was climbing through 3500? and switched over to Departure. Less than a minute later I notice an unusual sound, sort of like a low frequency vibration. I scanned the engine instruments and everything looked good. I adjusted the rpm (constant speed) to see if that would change the ?pitch? of the sound. It didn?t have much effect. Then I started hearing a ?tapping/banging? sound, sort of sounded like heavy rain drops hitting the aft fuselage. But there wasn?t any rain on the canopy. The ?tapping/banging? was not uniform in period and continued for maybe another minute. I was only about 5 miles from the airport so I contacted Departure and requested an immediate return to the airport. I informed them that I had an unusual ?tapping/banging? sound coming for outside the fuselage. They cleared me in. It wasn?t busy at the airport due to the holiday. I contacted the tower and they cleared me to any runway I wanted.
When I was on short final I noticed all the fire trucks with flashing lights. They had rolled all the airport fire trucks waiting to assist if needed. My landing was uneventful and I taxied back to the hangar to see what was going on with my RV. As I stopped in front of my hangar one of the large airport fire trucks pulled up just to check up on me. I apologized for waking them up and told them what happened. I never declared an emergency but the airport fire department responded as they did. They were very professional.
Even though I thought the ?tapping/banging? sound was coming from somewhere outside the aft fuselage, I did a quick walk-around inspection. Nothing outside the aft fuselage was amiss. When I started looking at the pilot?s side of the fuselage I noticed the wing root rubber molding had loosened and 50% of the length (from the main spar to the rear spar) was free to flap in the wind. This is what caused the ?tapping/banging? I heard. I believe just as it started to wiggle free it also caused the low frequency vibration noise I heard before ?tapping/banging?. It only took 15 minutes to fix the problem but I missed an opportunity to meet with my RV buddy.
This was my first return the airport just after takeoff. In fact this was the first time I ever had an inflight situation where I had to consider aborting my flight. When I heard the low frequency vibration noise it caught my attention and concern, but I didn?t panic. When the ?tapping/banging? started I was concerned but I knew the engine was running fine and there was no control stick or rudder pedal vibration so I believed I still had an airworthy aircraft to fly. Not knowing what was wrong with the aircraft left my mind once I committed to returning to the airport. My focus then was to safely fly back to the airport and land. I could then focus on finding the cause later.
I always revisit my flights in my mind, especially when something out the ordinary occurs. After reflecting on today?s events and asking ?Did I handle the situation right??, ?What could I have done differently?? I have come to the conclusion I would not have changed anything. I made my decision and committed to return to the airport as soon as I took a moment to assess the situation; I communicated my situation to Approach/Departure clearly; I aviated and my landing was spot on.
So today they rolled the trucks and I get to fly another day. All in all, it was a learning experience.
This morning I was planning on flying to meet up with another RVer who was in Phoenix for the weekend to pick up his RV. He is currently in KC-135 aircraft commander training and out of the state for a while. This was probably the last time I would get a chance to see him until his return in September. I helped him finish building his RV and we have become very good friends.
Our plan was to meet in the sky between Phoenix and Tucson. Everything was on schedule and my run up was uneventful. Our takeoff time was 6:15 and I hit it right on the nose. Did my normal takeoff and turned north on heading. I was climbing through 3500? and switched over to Departure. Less than a minute later I notice an unusual sound, sort of like a low frequency vibration. I scanned the engine instruments and everything looked good. I adjusted the rpm (constant speed) to see if that would change the ?pitch? of the sound. It didn?t have much effect. Then I started hearing a ?tapping/banging? sound, sort of sounded like heavy rain drops hitting the aft fuselage. But there wasn?t any rain on the canopy. The ?tapping/banging? was not uniform in period and continued for maybe another minute. I was only about 5 miles from the airport so I contacted Departure and requested an immediate return to the airport. I informed them that I had an unusual ?tapping/banging? sound coming for outside the fuselage. They cleared me in. It wasn?t busy at the airport due to the holiday. I contacted the tower and they cleared me to any runway I wanted.
When I was on short final I noticed all the fire trucks with flashing lights. They had rolled all the airport fire trucks waiting to assist if needed. My landing was uneventful and I taxied back to the hangar to see what was going on with my RV. As I stopped in front of my hangar one of the large airport fire trucks pulled up just to check up on me. I apologized for waking them up and told them what happened. I never declared an emergency but the airport fire department responded as they did. They were very professional.
Even though I thought the ?tapping/banging? sound was coming from somewhere outside the aft fuselage, I did a quick walk-around inspection. Nothing outside the aft fuselage was amiss. When I started looking at the pilot?s side of the fuselage I noticed the wing root rubber molding had loosened and 50% of the length (from the main spar to the rear spar) was free to flap in the wind. This is what caused the ?tapping/banging? I heard. I believe just as it started to wiggle free it also caused the low frequency vibration noise I heard before ?tapping/banging?. It only took 15 minutes to fix the problem but I missed an opportunity to meet with my RV buddy.
This was my first return the airport just after takeoff. In fact this was the first time I ever had an inflight situation where I had to consider aborting my flight. When I heard the low frequency vibration noise it caught my attention and concern, but I didn?t panic. When the ?tapping/banging? started I was concerned but I knew the engine was running fine and there was no control stick or rudder pedal vibration so I believed I still had an airworthy aircraft to fly. Not knowing what was wrong with the aircraft left my mind once I committed to returning to the airport. My focus then was to safely fly back to the airport and land. I could then focus on finding the cause later.
I always revisit my flights in my mind, especially when something out the ordinary occurs. After reflecting on today?s events and asking ?Did I handle the situation right??, ?What could I have done differently?? I have come to the conclusion I would not have changed anything. I made my decision and committed to return to the airport as soon as I took a moment to assess the situation; I communicated my situation to Approach/Departure clearly; I aviated and my landing was spot on.
So today they rolled the trucks and I get to fly another day. All in all, it was a learning experience.