Preflight

[martinroy6100]

Safety Wire / Preflight check

This past weekend there was an incident with a Sonerai 2L in Hood River Oregon. The pilot flipped the aircraft on its back after making a high speed landing downwind. The aircraft was damaged. The out board portion of the aileron was shed after the pin that holds that portion was lost. The pictures indicate that approximately 2 feet of the aileron remained with the aircraft and the remainder due to what I assume would be flutter was lost. The plane flipped over on its back as the brakes were applied with zeal to slow the aircraft from an approach speed that was said to be approximately in the 150 mph. The pilot was OK and the aircraft will need extensive repair.

Martin
N61QC

 

[splischke]

Here's the preliminary FAA report:

http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/accident_incident/preliminary_data/events02/media/07_8050R.txt

 

[Schmleff]

When I first built mine, someone that I trusted at the time said that there was no need to fasten the pins in, so I flew it without. After a number of hours (don't recall how many now) I noticed that one of the pins had started to move out of the hinge.

I have since drilled and inserted cotter pins in my hinges. Ugly, yes, but they can move.

I wonder if his pins were free floating or if they safety had failed?

 

[splischke]

I think it's really good practice to secure the piano hinge pins. I pinched one end of the hinge semi-closed so that the pin can't slip through. At the other end of the hinge, I drilled tiny holes for safety wire. So long as you don't pinch the hole completely closed, you can poke a small wire into the hole to extract the pin for aileron removal.

-Scott

 

[JuergenA]

a other system, see pictures:

 

[bobleedee]

Re: Preflight/Try Routine Maintenance

I saw this wreckage on the ramp a few days after it happened. I don

 

[gamestern269]

bobleedee, thanks for the compliments on my plane... yeah, NOW its junk but it did well for over 250 hours. There were no retainers in the hinge other than the end of the hinge being pinched a little. I didn't build the wings. It will fly again.

 

[thomefran]

That is the reason we do preflights. Check the ailerons, rudder, Elevator, wheels,tires, freedom of movement etc. A preflight should have caught this before the flight.

Once I watched as some people flew in to an airport, watched the show then jumped into their certified aircraft and took off first after the show was finished. The got up to about 100 ft agl when their engine died and they tried to turn back to the airport in order to avoid the trees in front of them. They died. Cause of the crash was water in the fuel. So Preflight would have caught this also.

Not really coming down hard on our guest but this is the reason we have to preflight our aircraft each and every time we go flying.

 

[Airskip.2010]

I personally like to do a pre-flight and a post-flight check.

Skip

 

[thomefran]

Great recommendation Skip

I do a post flight check on my RAF 2000 SE and I think I will do this on my SII. I really hadn't thought about this on my plane. But I think I will from now on. We really do promulgate what we learn from our CFIs don't we?