The rudder damage saga of Oshkosh 2015
So here is a follow up of the adventures of my OSH 2015 trip. I do not have the plane back to normal yet but it is in the works. Here is a synapses of the events:
Thursday was our scheduled departure date for leaving Oshkosh this year. We had originally planned to leave Wednesday but we were having such a great time that all but one of us traveling together decided to stay one more day. So after a fun filled 5 days we were ready to head home. Things were flowing smoothly that morning. We tore down our campsite, packed the planes and made our way over to homebuilt headquarters where all of us processed our camping refunds. After getting back to the airplanes we had a short briefing to discuss our plan of action for departure from OSH. Around 9:15 or so we had our planes out ready for the scooters to taxi us out to the conga line. Made it to the conga line and were slowly making our way to the end of 36L. We were a short 15 minutes or so from making it to the runway when Mary and I heard and felt the most horrible rumbling imaginable. In fact it really was ?unimaginable? because for a second or so I could not figure out for the life of me what was making such an incredible noise. The entire airplane was shaking and vibrating like it was being torn to shreds. My initial thought was something catastrophic was happening to the engine. But we were at idle. I looked at the engine gauges and everything was normal. We were actually stopped and the engine was idling contentedly around 750 RPMs. Nothing unusual. Then after a torturous, oh I don?t know, 500 milliseconds from the initial realization that it was not the engine, it dawned on me what was happening. David Figgins? (
be it forever known that as of 8-23-2015 David Figgins shall be christened ?SLASH?) RV7 had slowly crept forward as the conga line was stopped. His prop began chewing away at my rudder! All of this occurred in a matter of seconds. Seconds were all it took for the damage to be done.
My rudder was shredded!
There would be no flying today! Where we were on the taxiway was just a short distance over to the emergency repair station. We taxiied into the station and I went to work trying to get a replacement rudder to the show that would allow me to fly home. One of the guys running the show at the repair station drove me over in their new aluminum body Ford p/u to the Vans tent. Van was actually there so I told him of the incident and asked if they had any completed rudders at their factory in Oregon. They did not build quick build rudders as it was not a part of the normal quick build kits. However, they did have a retired RV9 with an intact rudder in the rafters collecting dust. They agreed to have shop personnel pull the rudder off, pack it and ship it overnight to the show. Without going into details, that is exactly what happened. This was around 11:00am on Thursday. The next day at 9:30am I received a phone call on my cell from the EAA Warehouse telling me there was a shipment from Vans with my name on it. It was the rudder. In less than 24 hours it had been flown half way across the country. As I will explain below it turns out I did not need the rudder, but it was great to know they went above and beyond to get me a rudder that I could use to fly home. Because I did not need the rudder, Vans told me to bring the box over to their tent and they would load it onto the truck when the show is over and take it back home.
Well, the reason I did not end up using the Vans rudder was due to help from another RV flyer. After talking with Vans I logged onto the VAF forum website. I logged in and posted that I had a damaged rudder at OSH and was in desperate need of a new rudder that could get me home from OSH. Butch Weckman from Hutchinson, MN saw my post and called my cell. He and a friend were leaving that evening after work to go to OSH. He happened to have a rudder that he could bring to the show that I could use. Further, it was complete and if I wished to do so, I could purchase it from him as a replacement. To make this already long story shorter, that is exactly what happened. Butch arrived at the repair station bright and early Friday morning. I arrived at 7:00am and commenced to removing my rudder. The rudder has three bolts holding it onto the vertical stabilizer and two bolts holding the rudder cables. They were quickly removed. I installed Butch?s rudder and in the span of approximately 2 hours we were ready to fly home. Mary had decided to ride home with friends from home via ground.
David '
SLASH' Figgins and his friend Phil had stayed with me to help with repairs (
SLASH was able to get a brand new prop from Catto props so he had his repairs made also). So Friday morning, almost 24 hours to the minute from the incident, we were now taxiing to RWY 18R for takeoff. We pulled into a much shorter conga line and with a great deal of looking out of the corner of my eye behind me the two of us pulled onto the runway. I announced we were a flight of two. The pink shirt called clearance for our flight of two to take off. We departed straight out on 18R and once clear of OSH class D climbed to 10.5K for our flight home.
We were headed to
Paola, KS (K81) for our fuel stop and some great BBQ at
We-Be-Smokin? BBQ. Which by the way, if anyone wants a nice day trip for some weekend you might think about flying up to We-Be-Smokin? BBQ for lunch. Great food right in the terminal building of the airport. So, the story finally comes to an end. I made it home just before 5:00pm Friday. Approximately 24 hours later than what was planned. The plane was finally tucked into the hangar after an eventful trip.
So, we now have two art pieces to display on the hangar apartment wall. A flap from the Sun N' Fun 2011 tornado and a rudder from the Oshkosh 2015
SLASH incident.
So what is it the French say? "C'est La Vie!"
And courtesy of the infamous philosopher Spock:
"Live Long and Prosper!"
I shall endeavor to live by both.