Looks like 9 tail

The one still photo looks like the horizontal stabilizer is constant chord. Could just be the angle of the photo too.

Sad day for sure!!!
 
RV7Guy said:
The one still photo looks like the horizontal stabilizer is constant chord. Could just be the angle of the photo too.
Sad day for sure!!!
Click to expand...

FAA registration lists it as an RV-6. Also note that the rudder has no counterbalance.
 
Mel said:
FAA registration lists it as an RV-6. Also note that the rudder has no counterbalance.
Click to expand...

Please forgive my ignorance, but what if the significance of no counerbalance - yes, I know that there is supposed to be one (I have built a rudder) but how might this have been an issue?
 
Nomex Maximus said:
Please forgive my ignorance, but what if the significance of no counerbalance - yes, I know that there is supposed to be one (I have built a rudder) but how might this have been an issue?
Click to expand...

It wasn't. Mel was simply pointing out that the only side by side RVs with no counterbalance were the early -6's.
 
What I find interesting about the photos is that neither the right nor left HS shows signs of impact, yet the left HS is clearly seperated at the fwd spar. Im scratching my head as to how this could occur.
 
Kahuna said:
What I find interesting about the photos is that neither the right nor left HS shows signs of impact, yet the left HS is clearly seperated at the fwd spar. Im scratching my head as to how this could occur.
Click to expand...

Could be damage caused by the the severe acceleration forces of the airframe impact. In one of the pictures there is significant buckling of the elevator skins evident around the hinge points.

Skylor
 
Kahuna said:
What I find interesting about the photos is that neither the right nor left HS shows signs of impact, yet the left HS is clearly seperated at the fwd spar. Im scratching my head as to how this could occur.
Click to expand...

skylor said:
Could be damage caused by the the severe acceleration forces of the airframe impact. In one of the pictures there is significant buckling of the elevator skins evident around the hinge points.

Skylor
Click to expand...

It is likely caused by inertial loading. The elevator counter weights are quite heavy. It looks like it was a pretty strong vertical impact. The sudden stop overloads the horizontal stab with the inertia of teh counter weights and it torsionally fails the elevators . I saw this on the wrecked (flipped over) RV-6A I rebuilt, but the failure was the other direction since it's impact was in the inverted direction. It also wasn't as bad but it still put about 6 degrees of dihedral in the horizontal stab and twisted both elevators.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.