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RV-7 down in Cortland NY

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VETE76

Well Known Member
http://binghamton.ynn.com/content/t...ine-plane-crashes-at-cortland-county-airport/ RV 7A
pilot ok. no pax. attempting a go around, no engine response. landed in grass field and flipped over.
cause. last yr he lost brakes on landing and went off runway and suffered wings and prop damage and had to have engine redone. when he put throttle linkage on he forgot the cotter pin in cable. nut unscrewed, bolt fell out plane crashed. he is extremly lucky to be alive! we are lucky he's still with us. one big reason contributing to this could be that he never had anyone else check his work (that i am aware of). we have lost 4 of our EAA members in the past 5 years in plane crashes and 2 survived crashes! it is terrible! all were stupid mistakes! i read on this forum where you talk about john did this, larry did this, ha ha and comments were you cant teach stupid! well we better find a way, we are loosing nice "stupid" people.
builders use your tech counslers!!!! they are worth their weight in gold! they DO care about you. they want you to stay healthy!!! i had 7 tech inspections while building my RV! it is flying great! and i am using a flight advisor with every flight! these are great people. some of you have to swallow your ego or what ever it is that makes you not seek their help! this is not a game, this is serious stuff.
sorry for ranting but this has to change.
my friend here is a 20yr army chopper pilot........................
 
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VETE76 said:
one big reason contributing to this could be that he never had anyone else check his work (that i am aware of).
Click to expand...

If the door is open when im working on my plane, I always have people in for a chat, they know they will be asked to look over what im working on, and a good friend will point out even the smallest thing, but that could save your life !
 
I'm with Jamie. Even though I'm "just" building a empennage, I've had no less than 5 sets of eyes ( that I know of) look things over. To me, its more fun -except pro seal- to have others look things over, help hold things, give praise AND scouldings---but I feel much more confident.
Big shout out to Lee Logan and Dennis Argetsinger for their knowledge, support, and use of the hangars.
Tom
 
Jamie Aust said:
If the door is open when im working on my plane, I always have people in for a chat, they know they will be asked to look over what im working on, and a good friend will point out even the smallest thing, but that could save your life !
Click to expand...

I, on the other hand, prefer people not to interrupt when I am doing maintenance since it may break the process and causes to forget something.

But I do like and encourage double and triple check the work when it is completed.
 
Good feedback on the extra pair of eyes

While I have not met all of you, so far 100% of the builders and pilots I've met are human. All humans are capable of making errors, and the sooner we accept this and implement strategies to mitigate the risk of error, the lower the likelihood we'll meet an early demise.

I met an RV8 builder at Peachtree City many moons ago, and he told me his strategy for extra inspections before his first flight - I found his idea really wise. He asked 5 or so of his friends and fellow builders in the area to do an inspection, and he committed to them he would fix anything that they didn't like, even if he thought it was trivial or didn't need fixing. This helped ensure that the inspectors didn't feel like they were wasting their time. He said it was a very valuable exercise.

I recall Mel write that it's rare that he inspects an aircraft without an issue - missing cotter pin or safety wire or loose nut.

I guess the challenge is how to get the extra pair of eyes on the aircraft after we do relatively minor maintenance.
 
In the racing world, we used to give unbiased observers/engineers/mechanics a 7/16, 1/2, 9/16 and 5/8 wrench and say.....find me three lose nuts....
 
Inspections

H
In the Uk we are required to have inspections. When I built my Kitfox it was of course inspected. After about a month of flying I fount that one of the castle nuts that does not get undone when you fold the wings was not lock. Flying for a month and I could have lost the flaperons at any time.

Now as you will see from my blog I have adopted the approach of photographine everything thats finished up. If I have not taken a photo its not finished. So, I am now triple checking my work, my inspector will check it and I intend to get a third Inspector to check it.

Its not stupid to miss something... to err is human. But it is stupid not to get your work checked or even double checked!!

I am very sorry to here about the damage to the 7, and hope the pilot is OK, Having just lost my 9 I know how he feels!!
 
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I totally agree that you should have someone else look over your work as you build. Another set of eyes is always a good thing, even if the only eyes available belong to someone that is not as technically aviation savy as you would like, like your wife or son or neighbor. They will still have good input if they are willing to engage in an inspection.

That said, though, it is always better to eliminate mistakes in the first place rather than inspect for them. This is how the car business went from where they were in the 70's to the almost bullet proof quality that they have today. To this end, my goal is to have a standardized way to rivet, bolt, install, lock wire, write down things that need follow-up, etc, so that the build process itself is as cosistent as possible. This makes it as error free as possible so that the inspections will find very little that need to be corrected. Yes inpections need to be done, but I believe the focus needs to be on making the build process as error free as possible.

I guess what I am saying bottom line is, I am working as if I can't rely on inspections, but inspecting anyway.

IMHO anyway,

Tim
 
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