Yikes !!!
I'm glad all turned out well for you Jr. I think you win the "where did you fly today" for March. (Heck maybe the year)

Mark

Man oh man, that's more excitment than anyone needs. Glad you made it back, and home safe. Cripes, I was sitting on the edge of the chair just reading your post.

Me, my flying was not near as exciting as that. I went out and practiced some night hood work doing DME arc, holding patterns, and a VOR approach and shot some night landings. Mundane in comparison.

Junior, sure sorry to hear about your experience, but really glad you're OK. Kind of a helpless feeling knowing what's wrong ut not being able to do anything about it-- kinda like my sputter-club fuel starvation incident last weekend.
Sounds like you have the early (48-52) himged upper cowl? I'm sure replacements are avialable, but they might be spendy. Did anything else suffer any damage from the cowl-based shrapnel?
A friend of mine had a cowl latch on his ragwing 170 let go and one side opened up on him, but had nowhere near the degree of damage as you.
I'm curious if the cowl latches were safetied in any way?

Eric

DUUUUUDE....

That's the suck of the year for sure. I think this one's worthy of a Live To Tell thread. Glad you kept it together, not much to do in that situation but ride it out I guess. Bottom cowl ok?

DAMN!

Jr.CubBuilder wrote:The throttle came back in an instinctive move and my hands began to flutter about the cockpit in a ridiculous and completely futile attempt to remedy the situation. I think in hind sight I was on autopilot for a few seconds just going through some drill that I had been taught as a student years ago. It worked though, it gave me a couple seconds of something for my mind to chew on instead of going into total panic.

Junior,

Way back in the dark ages, I had a drill sergeant tell me that each situation was different, but that learning the drills by instintive memory made you do something and cut down on the panic factor while you figured out what you should really be doing. Looks like he was right - again.

Don

The cowl latches on my 170 were safetied when I got it. I think it should be mandatory- otherwise you're just depending on the latch's over-center feature and the little springy thing that it snaps into. There are several different ways to safety these latches, from a simple screw thru the latch itself to more elaborate methods. Try a search on the 170 site for ideas.

Eric

I don't know what Dip Davis gets for his latches, but I think they're pretty much the same as those used on Pacers. I'd just stick with the originals, but safety them. Also, since you're set up as a pressure cowl now, I'd add a row of screws down each side going into nutplates on the lower cowl. It'll still be quick & easy to open up, so if it was me I wouldn't bother with the oil door. Hard to add oil thru, plus you can't see the engine very well either for a good preflight engine inspection.

Eric

Damn JR! Just looked at the pictures you posted, that thing was really flogging itself. Glad you kept it (you) together.

That'll buff out.

Does the pilot's seat upholstery look as bad as the cowl?

Jeesh! Awesome job of dealing with it, and flying the bird back to home base.
A fellow near here raked a good chunk of the sheet metal off the upper surface of his wing, when he hit a wire in the canyon. Flew it back to base, just like you did.
It's amazing what these beasts will do even when metal's peeling off, and pummeling the rest of the ship - as long as the pilot keeps cool, and deals with flying the plane.
Well done. Good luck on the fix, and thanks for letting others know how something crazy can be handled if necessary.
Berk

Jr,

Just saw this thread. Looks like a little excitement all right.

My cowl latches are safetied with cam locks that we installed through the bottom latch. Pretty easy, and a pretty positive means to ensure the things don't open in flight.

Glad nothing more was damaged.

MTV

Hey Chris,

I already PM'd you, but just read your story/saw the pics. Good job doing the FTFP part!

Matt

Ouch!!

My 140 uses the same latches, but I've never had a problem with them. I've seen guys drill holes and run cotter keys through them, but was always told it was overkill. No doubt your new engine/baffling combo added to the situation, but after looking at that I see a latch mod in my future. Nice job getting back on the ground safely. Thanks for sharing and glad you are OK.

-Matt

Hey Chris,
A little late, but here are the pics I mentioned in my PM:

Note the three quarter-turn camlocks in addition to the stock latches (above)

Above and the following three pics are doublers to stop the cracks that were just starting in my brand new upper cowl center section. This repair started when I noticed two loops of the aluminum hinge on the left gull door had broken. I elected to replace both hinges with stainless steel ones. When I drilled the cowl apart, I found the three small cracks as well. Grrrr.






M