Bad landing at KFLG

[flion]

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.

[rvmills]

Glad you're OK and the airplane will fly again Patrick. I lived in Flag for a while and did some contract corporate and air ambulance flying while there. The winds there can certainly get sporting at times...that's for sure!

You sure have a great "find the silver lining" attitude about it...all the best in the rebuild, and hope you're back up in the air soon!

Cheers,
Bob

[MrNomad]

Patrick:

I feel your pain having bent the nose gear on my 9A two years ago. Based on the photo, your prop struck the ground. I was at idle when my prop struck but even so, when we removed the crank, it was bent 22 thou. The limit is 18 thou.

Several A & Ps dialed my crank while it was still inside the engine. Some said it was ok, but when we removed it the truth was discovered.

I hope you're luckier than me, but if the insurance company is on the hook for the repairs, you might want to check. Aside from the labor, tearing an engine apart costs approx $1k for bearings and gaskets.

[Louise Hose]

Patrick,
Sorry to hear the news but glad you are alright and the plane will fly again!

[TSwezey]

Don't worry about stealing my thunder Patrick! I am just sorry that you have to deal with this situation. Glad you weren't hurt. The insurance company will make everything all better! Get her back flying ASAP and you might as well paint her! By the way my wife graduated from NAU.

[Ron Lee]

It sounds like you think that no engine damage occurred. I would rethink that based upon what you reported. Engine tear down may be prudent.

[Danny7]

Originally Posted by Ron Lee

It sounds like you think that no engine damage occurred. I would rethink that based upon what you reported. Engine tear down may be prudent.

he said the engine was torn down and it sounds like he is waiting for parts to come back from getting checked/ approved for service

Hey Patrick, what are you doing with the prop blades? wall hangers?

[Ron Lee]

I missed that. Good news on the engine.

As for the nose gear, can you go to the point of impact and see if there is an obvious sign of the nut catching. When I converted to the new nose gear assembly, I reinforced the area at the bottom and sides of the forward nose gear fairing with several layers of kevlar or similar.

The notion, right or wrong, is that I want to preclude the nut at the bottom of the nose gear from catching on anything and acting as a pole vault. Thus the kevlar "may" act as a skid protected that nut.

Whether it works or would work in a similar event as you had is unknown. As of today, I still cannot imagine how it would make anything worse. Of course that would not reveal itself until something happened..as which point you have your "Ah ha!" moment.

[Sheldon]

Glad no one got hurt, Patrick. I'm based over here at St. John's (SJN) and I am always dealing with amazing wind conditions.. (Had to go around many a time).. Think I have seen you & your bird there..?? Anyway, best of luck on bebuilding.. If you need any help, feel free to ask...
Sheldon

[David-aviator]

Originally Posted by Ron Lee

I missed that. Good news on the engine.

As for the nose gear, can you go to the point of impact and see if there is an obvious sign of the nut catching. When I converted to the new nose gear assembly, I reinforced the area at the bottom and sides of the forward nose gear fairing with several layers of kevlar or similar.

The notion, right or wrong, is that I want to preclude the nut at the bottom of the nose gear from catching on anything and acting as a pole vault. Thus the kevlar "may" act as a skid protected that nut.

Whether it works or would work in a similar event as you had is unknown. As of today, I still cannot imagine how it would make anything worse. Of course that would not reveal itself until something happened..as which point you have your "Ah ha!" moment.

Whether or not the nut becomes the pivot point depends on the angle of the airplane at impact. In a normal landing with the mains on the ground, it probably can't catch the nut. If the mains are in flight, it probably will.

My nearest most recent serious screw up was in trying to salvage a tail wind landing with too much airspeed the result of a steep final angle. The nose gear touched first and that was the beginning of a mandatory go around. It did not bend or break anything but I could feel the NG strut spring back and forward during the event.

This configuration (-A model) requires a landing on the mains in a nose high attitude keeping the NG off as long as possible. The NG is not designed to be banged on (like a 152 or Cherokee) for any reason. A nose gear prang on at high speed is as critical as the pogo event with a tail dragger. It is very tricky to salvage and a go around is a good idea.

I've been doing some work with establishing just how slow I can safely fly final so as to land nose high on the mains all the time. My beast stalls at 51 KIAS with flaps so I've been using 60 on final with good results. The AOA has been calibrated to that stall speed and is a great help as it does call for slightly higher speed when heavier.

Which brings the discussion to the landing at KFLG. It sounds like it was one of those days when I would have kept the hangar door closed. I've been in situations where it was most difficult to get the airplane down to a reasonable speed for landing before hitting another gust that launched it again and in a few seconds its out of the gust on the verge of a stall, 10 feet in the air. This is not much fun in a light airplane.