In flight spar failure my broken tail

[l_reason]

This is what I wrote when I got home from one of the scariest flights of my life. I’m grateful that I had enough knowledge, skill and luck to live through it. I’m not to sure what there is to be learned form my misfortune other then never give up trying to flying the plane and fly it till the last part stops moving.

PT

September 1, 2005
Today is a day that as long as I live I will never forget.

I was out flying my 1947 Luscombe 8E, shooting aerial photos for work near Ridgetown, Ontario, when for some unknown reason my airplane started yawing side to side without any control inputs from me. This was not something that I have ever had a plane do to me before. I started “playing” with the rudder pedals, they felt unstable and over reactive. It was very difficult to maintain control of the uncontrollable side to side motions and I was only able to get some control back by holding a lot of pressure on both rudder pedals. It was at this point that it became apparent to me that this was not something I wanted to be trying to fix while flying at 100 mph, in a plane that was nearly sixty years old.
I immediately started looking for a suitable field to land in, while at the same time making a distress radio call to London Flight Service, to which I got no response! There were many fields below me, all of which were full of 6 foot tall corn, nothing I wanted to attempt a landing in. I used my GPS and located the Highgate airfield just less then 5 nautical miles north of where I was and after struggling through a turn towards the airfield I initiated contact with another aircraft in the area who relayed my distress call to Flight Service. As I got sight of the airfield my elevator controls started to be affected by what ever was going wrong in the tail section, I was no longer able to hold the nose in a steady position. With constant pitching up and down, right and left, I attempted to make a slight left hand turn to do a straight in approach to the North facing runway. It would have no part of this so I started a turn to the right in order to come all the way around and line up with the runway. The runway was nothing short of perfectly ideal, strait into a 10 knot wind, 100 feet wide and way longer than I would ever need. Once I was on short final and had the engine at idle I realized I was doing more then 100 mph and was only 100 feet from the ground! I immediately pulled the carb heat on, and turned one magneto off in attempt to slow the engine. I realized that I was flying a plane that had no flaps, and no useful rudder to help me slow down in a slip. Remarkably the landing was uneventful. Once on the ground I made one last radio call to the aircraft relaying the messages “I’m safely on the ground”. I then took a deep breath followed by a huge sigh of relief.

Once the initial drama of making an emergency landing was over, I had to get my disabled airplane off the runway and figure out what the hell went wrong. A quick inspection of the tail section I found that the vertical fin and rudder assembly was loose and able to lean freely from side to side about 14“. I removed the damaged inspection covers and discovered the whole assembly was being held on by only two rivets at the front and the lower most rudder hinge bolt at the rear. I suspect that they both only had a minute or two of stress left before they would have given way as well. Had this been the case it would have left me with no longitudinal control, a situation that I am not so sure I would be here to describe.

After investigation of my aircraft by my mechanic and the Transport Canada Safety Board, it was determined that the rear fin attachment spar had cracked and failed, thus causing the fin to move and break the other fin mounts. The rudder and levitator were also bent from these unusual fin movements.
Lucky… I think so!

[marktheone]

Once I was on short final and had the engine at idle I realized I was doing more then 100 mph and was only 100 feet from the ground! I immediately pulled the carb heat on, and turned one magneto off in attempt to slow the engine. I realized that I was flying a plane that had no flaps, and no useful rudder to help me slow down in a slip. Remarkably the landing was uneventful.

???? You were reading the flight manual in the cockpit?

Just kidding, good tale

[l_reason]

[water wings]

as the French say "tabarnac!"

[l_reason]

[A. Thompson]

Thanks for that lesson in "fly the plane"

[Gurundu the Rat]

Good story!

Lots of older planes have cracks caused by fatigue. My AME found cracks in my '53 C-170s tail rescently. Annuals can get expensive but well worth every penny to get a good one done with the glasses on every now and then. Especially on 50+ year old airframes.

Good job gettin'er down.

[Where'd who go?]

Well handled I_reason. I think I remember that aircraft from southern ontario a long time ago.

Happy that you are safe.

[Hedley]

Holy crap! Structural failure is every pilot's nightmare, and you did VERY well.

I hope there is going to be an AD issued, so that other owners are made aware of this potential problem, and have their mechanics inspect for cracks there?

[Trevor]

Great story - glad to hear that you made it down safe.

I'd recommed that teh moderators move this into the 'Big Chills' forum so your experience isn't lost in the jumble of this forum.

Hedley, there is already an AD against the vertical stabilizer in Luscombes. If I remember correctly, it has to do with the forward attach. Whether that would have caught this situation I don't know.

[l_reason]

Yes if one of the moderators wants to move this to “Big Chills” that’s fine with me.

I do use my plane a lot about 215hrs since May ‘05. That being said I have it in the AME shop about every 30-35 hours for an oil change and a check-up. As for the vertical stabilizer AD the rudder was “repaired” by XU aviation in London in ’02 since then it has been flown about 300 hours. From what I have heard from transport so far from their investigation. It was the rear main attach spar that broke due to a crack initiating at a rivet hole. The rudder and fin would have to be removed to have inspected that area for cracks.

And on the repair end of things $8000 and 28 days of downtime I have a NEW rudder, vertical stab, and everything that was attached to it.

Here are a few more photos of the damage. The last is of the tail all fixed up, just before I flew it back to London.
PT
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/ ... G_0101.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/ ... G_0065.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/ ... G_0071.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/ ... CT0821.jpg

[C-GPME]

Great flying reason!!!

Thats the sort of emergency where it all comes down to pilot skill and knowledge. I've done some emergency maneuvers training where we practice various control failures but the aircraft is still in positive control at all times. You were at the mercy of you skills and how long your plane was going to hang on, good stuff, thats a story for the grand kids!!

All the best

PME

[TopRudder]

hey

EVERYONE has to stop thinking this guy is a great pilot!

Ive never met a bigger COWBOY in all my flying time!

If you dont believe me just read the past posts from this guy. Go ahead Ill see the idiot tendancies

The damage to the tail was self induced. He posted pictures of rolling and looping a rental straight 152 on the net. He was banned from ever renting in SW ontario from every school around. Thats the reason he got the tail fixed so fast.

Having the tail almost come off would scare most with common sense but not this guy.

Fu#kin idiot as far as I am concerned and Im sure after some more locals read this shit they will agree. Most people that Fu#k up that bad dont write a big long story unless its for the TC report. Much less post it on the internet.

Hey Big P I hope you learn something in all this, if I were you, I would look long and hard at all my family and that pretty little girlfriend and decide if you really want to go out that way.

TR

[Inverted2]

Yep, you don't do aerobatics in a 60 year old airplanes, especially non aerobatic ones! This can be the end result.

[Cat Driver]

I_reason posted this on the flight training forum.

" I have learned the tribunal lesson first hand! I got busted for two counts of reckless flying (602.01) 2 years ago. The tribunal hearing was the biggest bunch of shit I had ever taken part in! Those tainted sons of bitches!!!!! How do you plead Guilty? guilty, guilty or guilty
I sent them the $2000 for the fine and the dumb shits sent half back!!! That’s right they gave me $1000 back along with a letter saying I was paid in full.. They aren’t even good at being assholes . "

And this in the general forum.

" Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:34 am Post subject: C-hris....XW?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C-hris were you in X-ray Whisky when you did that stall? I have had a few close calls in that bird. The triple “6” 60 degrees @60kts @ 600AGL. I “grayed” out pulling into a descending turn after a long commute approaching a reflight. That is one tough 152. "

Looks like he is lucky to be alive, and it does not seem to be because he is smart....or skilled as a pilot either.

Cat

[nightrunner]

! I immediately pulled the carb heat on, and turned one magneto off in attempt to slow the engine.

At this point your'e commited to landing, why not just shut down the engine and decrease the risk of fire once on the ground instead of going through this horseshit?

[Blakey]

I don't know the gentleman involved so I can't add to the line of comment that seems to be shaping up here but I do have a question. Just where would one procure an entire new vertical stab for a Luscombe? And on short notice too.

I have enough trouble trying to get parts for a Cessna!

[. ._]

So if I have idle power, and I put the carb heat on, and turn off a mag, my rpm will decrease? At idle power while still flying along?

I don't remember reading anything like that in From The Ground Up.

-istp

[l_reason]

C-hris were you in X-ray Whisky when you did that stall? I have had a few close calls in that bird. The triple “6” 60 degrees @60kts @ 600AGL. I “grayed” out pulling into a descending turn after a long commute approaching a reflight. That is one tough 152.

C-hris and I worked for the same guy but at different times. The boss at that company pushes his Pilots very hard to produce a lot of product. It was a tough job working there competing to keep your job all the time. I did have a few scares when I worked at that company just as he did, in the same plane he flew. That poor 152 is still doing the same hard work it was when I left 500 hours every summer. Any aircraft doing that work is “one tough 152”. This posting of C-hris’s explains in great detail what working as an aerial photographer is like. http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopi ... hotography

“He posted pictures of rolling and looping a rental straight 152”
I’m an aerial photographer who shot the picture??? Hmm….

Blakey Luscomes aren’t that hard to find parts for we ordered them from on of the major parts suppliers I’m not sure if it was Spruce but they do list tons of parts for Luscombe’s
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/a ... scombe.php

As for why I turned one mag off & carb heat on. I was on final, high & fast with no other options other then overshooting trying to think of anyway to slowdown. I could not use flaps, a slip or S-turns. I did not want to kill the engine because it permanently takes away options such as a shot of power to get over a big bump on the (unknown) runway, or the power lines/fence/ditch at the far end to make it into the next field. I wanted every option open. It was just a thought at the time but an engine will idle slower on one mag then two and you all know what the carb heat does for idle speed. I have no idea if it helped but I don’t think it hurt anything and left me a few more options then just turning the both the mags off. If I did turn them off and then later back on it would normally cause the engine to backfire due to fresh fuel being ignited in the exhaust (my Luscombe does NOT have a mixture control and there is about 5 feet of fuel line between the fuel valves and the carburetor).

[Cat Driver]

Quote:

" He posted pictures of rolling and looping a rental straight 152”
I’m an aerial photographer who shot the picture??? Hmm…. "

That is a rather lame response.

Did you or have you looped a Cessna 152 , that was not certified for aerobatics?

Cat

[l_reason]

Looped…? NO I HAVE NEVER…

[l_reason]

I just found this report of my incident from Transport Canada. http://www.tc.gc.ca/CivilAviation/certi ... 005-09.htm

[l_reason]

.....you mentioned your skill in your original post...you said you had 5 miles to slow down a Luscome...is this a fighter jet..or a draggy underpowered aluminum kite?

I guess I had other things on my mind… It all worked out in the end I used the breaks to keep it strait and it was stopped at about the ½ way down the 3000’ strip. Since then I’ve done a few no power approaches with the same kind of limitations as I had that that day just for the challenge of it. I found that it is quite tough to do a ded on spot landing especially if 3-pointed. I’m not about to try and wheel land a Luscombe on with out using the rudder

[rexmckay]

I learned to fly in Luscombes in Texas in 1960. We "kids" were always practicing "what if's", e.g. "what if the rudder cables broke?" We learned that the Luscombe can be controlled in yaw by application of the DOORS. Because the door hinges are forward of the CG, it requires OPPOSITE DOOR for a turn. To turn left, bank left and open the right door. It's easier with two occupants. Try it sometime. It works!
Rex

[mcrit]

Two issues going on here. I give the man several points for getting that a/c back on the ground. That was good flying, regardless of what he may or may not have done on other flights. IF he actually did the aeros and stuff that he's being accused of here, then I hope he got it out of his system and won't be doing it again. Either way, he still brought the a/c back in a situation that was far from easy.