The Sealand RED V12 Diesel Beaver flies!

[rigpiggy]

https://m.facebook.com/groups/dhc2beave ... 417166763/
Told some kind of incidents today

[Dias]

Is Pilotdar okay? I know Diamond has been having a lot of issues with their diesels. Cracked pistons I believe.

[PilotDAR]

I was not flying this flight. The two pilots are doing okay, the plane is less well.

The airplane had more than 100 hours, and the engine had been very dependable throughout that flying. The TSB is investigating, and there will be lots of engine data to download from two onboard recording systems. If there was an engine problem, there will be a record. In the mean time, I'm told that Sealand is still fully committed to the program, so with a delay, development will continue. It's an excellent airplane, the RED diesel is the perfect match to the Beaver. This will be a great product, just some bumps along the road of development.

[Big Pistons Forever]

I was not flying this flight. The two pilots are doing okay, the plane is less well.

The airplane had more than 100 hours, and the engine had been very dependable throughout that flying. The TSB is investigating, and there will be lots of engine data to download from two onboard recording systems. If there was an engine problem, there will be a record. In the mean time, I'm told that Sealand is still fully committed to the program, so with a delay, development will continue. It's an excellent airplane, the RED diesel is the perfect match to the Beaver. This will be a great product, just some bumps along the road of development.

Glad to hear everyone is OK. Hope the root cause of the failure is easily determined and fixable and that the test program can resume.

[Dias]

I was not flying this flight. The two pilots are doing okay, the plane is less well.

The airplane had more than 100 hours, and the engine had been very dependable throughout that flying. The TSB is investigating, and there will be lots of engine data to download from two onboard recording systems. If there was an engine problem, there will be a record. In the mean time, I'm told that Sealand is still fully committed to the program, so with a delay, development will continue. It's an excellent airplane, the RED diesel is the perfect match to the Beaver. This will be a great product, just some bumps along the road of development.

I'm glad to hear you and they are okay. Can you describe the incident and where it took place?

[PilotDAR]

The pilots were doing a familiarization flight south of Campbell River. I'm not at liberty to provide any details, that will have to come from authorized sources. The TSB has lots to work with to investigate the factors.

[Daniel Cooper]

Everybody is talking about engine data so I imagine it was that. Perhaps a oil injection system like a snowmobile could aid with running on Jet A reliably.

[Intentional Left Bank]

CADORS Number: 2023P2452
Occurrence Date: 2023-09-20
Occurrence Time: 1730Z
Occurrence Location: N49 47 W125 12

A Sealand Aviation Ltd. de Havilland DHC-2 (C-GSBA) from Campbell River, BC to Campbell River, BC departed from CYBL at 1720Z for a flight to the Southeast. At 1733Z, the pilot declared "MAYDAY" and stated that they were landing in the trees in the vicinity of Constitution Hill. Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria and local emergency services was alerted. Crew member of incident aircraft was able to contact aircraft operator to advise two people on board were okay. A search and rescue aircraft was dispatched from Comox, BC.

[rigpiggy]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2ZhRaOJ ... NhbQ%3D%3D

3:13 mini merlin. As much as I like the 985 I'd like this in an amphib beaver.

Any news on this front

[7ECA]

Neat looking bird, and quiet to boot. Gotta do something about those exhausts though... can we graft on a PT6A-34 exhaust to give it a bit more of a certain je ne sais quoi?

[linecrew]

CADORS Number: 2023P2452
Occurrence Date: 2023-09-20
Occurrence Time: 1730Z
Occurrence Location: N49 47 W125 12

A Sealand Aviation Ltd. de Havilland DHC-2 (C-GSBA) from Campbell River, BC to Campbell River, BC departed from CYBL at 1720Z for a flight to the Southeast. At 1733Z, the pilot declared "MAYDAY" and stated that they were landing in the trees in the vicinity of Constitution Hill. Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Victoria and local emergency services was alerted. Crew member of incident aircraft was able to contact aircraft operator to advise two people on board were okay. A search and rescue aircraft was dispatched from Comox, BC.

I missed this post from last year. Glad that the pilots were ok. Does anyone know how badly the aircraft was damaged after landing in the trees? Is it repairable?

[PilotDAR]

Yes, it will be repaired. Sealand is waiting for the TSB to release the plane to them so it can be repaired, and the engine sent for inspection. We're hoping to have it flying again this summer for more testing, but TSB timing is not certain just yet. The goal is to get it onto amphib floats next so we can begin that phase of testing.

[PilotDAR]

I'm told that the TSB has completed their draft report on the accident, and it has been released to a limited group for comment before the final report is issued. My understanding is the the observations in the report are pretty well in line with what was expected to be read by the interested parties, so hopefully the final report won't be too far off.

I know that Sealand is eager to get the program back underway!

[pelmet]

I'm told that the TSB has completed their draft report on the accident, and it has been released to a limited group for comment before the final report is issued. My understanding is the the observations in the report are pretty well in line with what was expected to be read by the interested parties, so hopefully the final report won't be too far off.

I know that Sealand is eager to get the program back underway!

Is this a report that will be released to the public?

[PilotDAR]

I certainly expect that the report will be publicly released, once the draft has been accepted, which I anticipate without difficulty. The report likely will not have any bright flashes of stunning information, but rather a general explanation of an unintended developmental misconfiguration, with an outcome which had not been imagined.

There was no pilot error, fuel problem, airframe problem, engine problem, nor outside (weather) factor. Sometimes when developing a new product, some hard lessons are learned....

[goldeneagle]

Sometimes when developing a new product, some hard lessons are learned....

And this is how we get some abnormal situation checklists that make you ask 'why do that ?'. It's because during development somebody learned a lesson the hard way.

[7ECA]

Report released:

https://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-repo ... p0123.html

The investigation determined that the aircraft was modified after the 2 flight permits had been issued and that it was being operated in this modified state. The investigation also determined that the modifications did not comply with the intended conditions and limitations specified by the permits, and they had not been communicated to TC for the issuance of a revised flight authority.

The propeller governor3 authorized for use under the aircraft’s flight authority (Governor No. 1) was designed to be used with a reversing propeller. The propeller governor4 found installed at the time of the occurrence (Governor No. 2) was not designed for use with a reversing propeller. Both propeller governors are electronically controlled single-acting systems that use oil pressure to decrease propeller pitch; however, they differ with respect to their oil pressure output.

The propeller governor installed at the time of the occurrence (Governor No. 2) was determined to have an output oil pressure sufficient to drive the propeller blades into a reverse pitch angle at idle engine power under certain flight conditions. Once the propeller was established in reverse pitch, advancing the power lever would not reestablish a positive pitch with the installed propeller governor because the governor output oil pressure remained at the level required to produce reverse pitch. A reverse propeller pitch angle in flight creates a thrust vector opposite to the flight path. TSB laboratory analysis of the damage to the propeller system components determined that all 3 propeller blades were likely in the reverse blade angle range when the aircraft impacted terrain. This may explain why inadequate thrust was available following the power-off stall exercise.

[boeingboy]

Unbelieveable....

[Dry Guy]

You gotta ask yourself if you want to buy an airplane engine from a company that plays this fast and loose.

[7ECA]

Not a great look for Sealand that's for damned sure.

[PilotDAR]

It's common knowledge that I'm part of the Sealand team on this one. The quoted passages of the TSB report represent what I also understand. But the quoted passages do not address some background information as to why certain decisions were made. Believe that Sealand did not solely, nor in isolation, just decide to install a different governor on the engine. Allow for some undiscussed "why's?" which played a part in this development project. And, some lessons learned, as to how to do better next time. Trust me, an error carried across the development process here, is now well understood, and will never be repeated! And, my understanding of the error will lead me to actively prevent a similar situation in future approval work. It was an unhappy lesson, but we learned....

[Dias]

Were there fines?

[7ECA]

Believe that Sealand did not solely, nor in isolation, just decide to install a different governor on the engine. Allow for some undiscussed "why's?" which played a part in this development project.

Unfortunately this quote makes it seem as though there was some effort to conceal the changes made:

None of these changes were documented in the aircraft’s maintenance or technical records.

As for learning from mistakes made, and owning up to the mistakes, I think we can all appreciate that. It's just quite lucky that everyone walked away from the accident with minor injuries, and the aeroplane will come back into service eventually.

[PilotDAR]

Unfortunately this quote makes it seem as though there was some effort to conceal the changes made:

I see the impression it leaves, not ideal. That said, though plural terms were used, the "change" under discussion was actually singular, the replacement of the governor. At the time, and after Sealand seeking appropriate technical input about the governor replacement, Sealand did not consider the replacement of a governor which had not been functioning as intended during developmental flying, with another provided to them from a competent source, to be a "change", but rather just a replacement. Agreed, it did not work out that way (the lesson learned), but there was no intent to conceal anything, rather it did not receive the attention (as a "change") it obviously should have in hindsight.

It is obvious that Sealand wears this, but it was not Sealand alone whose decisions were non ideal, there were several of us - we all learned!

[CpnCrunch]

I see the impression it leaves, not ideal. That said, though plural terms were used, the "change" under discussion was actually singular, the replacement of the governor. At the time, and after Sealand seeking appropriate technical input about the governor replacement, Sealand did not consider the replacement of a governor which had not been functioning as intended during developmental flying, with another provided to them from a competent source, to be a "change", but rather just a replacement. Agreed, it did not work out that way (the lesson learned), but there was no intent to conceal anything, rather it did not receive the attention (as a "change") it obviously should have in hindsight.

It is obvious that Sealand wears this, but it was not Sealand alone whose decisions were non ideal, there were several of us - we all learned!

I think the issue is also the lack of logbook entries, which (as far as I know) should have been done even for an exact replacement. Is that not the case?