Was supposed to be doing a ferry flight of a small aircraft called a Lightwing half way across the country tomorrow. Was a type I’ve flow before but not had a huge amount of experience in. The 912 powered aircraft recently had major works done on it however in the testing after these works it was found that the aircraft through 90 percent of the power ban was just find, though when you pushed the throttle through the final 10 percent it would run fine for anything from 3-30 seconds then suddenly loose 300 – 400 revs, and the power would slowly continue to dwindle. Simply pulling the power back a tad would remedy the problem instantly. Everything on the plane was checked and replaced trying to find the issue. From fuel and air filters, fuel lines, scat hoses, carby kit, the works but the problem remained. Eventually a whole new carby on one side was replaced and with test flying appeared to remedy the problem. The intention was for me to embark on the ferry flight tomorrow but given the issues the aircraft had I insisted I wanted to give the aircraft a through test flight of my own today.

I arrived at the airfield and got the plane out ready to depart. I gave the aeroplane a solid preflight and went over it in detail. Everything appeared to be in order. I fired the aircraft up and did extensive ground testing and run ups, again everything appeared to be perfect. I taxied out onto the runway but unfortunately due to helicopter training operations underway could only get use of ¾ of it. Not a worry though as the runway is huge and this thing jumps off the ground. I powered and goy the 5400 rpm I was looking for no worries. I kept it down on full power just to make sure all was well before climbing out. As the end of the runway approached I decided Im having no power issues here, lets start climbing out. Unfortunately my decision to test the aircraft at low level ment I had run out of runway before I got to test the motor under any series load and as I pulled the stick back, the now fast moving aircraft quickly climbed up to about 200 feet but as the speed washed off to standard climb and the prop was put under load, my RPM quickly dived to 3400 rpm. This was just enough to keep the aircraft at altitude just above stall but only just. With no runway left infront of me, only houses, I slowly eased the aircraft around in a very gentle turn making sure setting up to land. When pushing the stick forward however in order to descend, the RPM jumped back up to 5400 like nothing was ever a problem. A few power checks on short final and all seemed totally normal and a perfectly safe landing in an 8 knot cross wind was performed without blinking an eye lid. The aircraft was taxied back to the hangar and investigations were undertaken. The aircraft was tied to a car and ground run ups where done with 5400 rpm being reached no problem. Every minor detail was checked, but unfortunately as is so common in these situations, the major details were missed. By far and away the least mechanical of everyone there….me…. couldn’t help but notice that there was a scat hose sticking out of the top of the engine and a funny angle. Thinking this was some amazing modification I’d never heard of I was about to ask the mechanics what that mod did, when I noticed that one side of the nearby carby was missing its scat hose. The hose clamp found on the ground bellow the plane confirmed my suspicion this was likely the problem. Despite looking and feeling like the hose was firmly in place before flight, the hose must not have been seated properly and had worked its way loose.

Scat hose back in place and with a fresh pair of undies on, the next test flight was undertaken. This time not really given a stuff what the helicopters wanted me to do, every inch of runway was used. The aircraft was sent to full power of which it achieved easily and I took her straight into best climb. No worries, at all she climbed like a bullet a gate…..for about 30 seconds. Then low and behold I lost about 300 – 400 RPM, but with a slight backing off of the power I got it back again. I tried full power again but after 4 seconds, I lost the top end again. Not being to worried as I was easily in a position to make a gliding approach I took her up to 3000 feet over the field to do some testing. At 90- 95 percent power I was still making great RPM figures and the engine purred like a kitten. Yet when ever that throttle hit the stoppers, she would loose power. After half an hour of testing I had pretty well decided it was no big issue and I would likely be happy to ferry the plane anyway just after checking with the mechanics they thought it would be ok. I descended and joined circuit to land, and that’s when my day got really interesting.

In late downwind I had one hand on the stick and the other down near the floor (so no where near the throttle) playing with the trim settings. The plane was putting along at about 4000 rpm getting ready to land when suddenly the engine went quite. Not a 400 rpm drop this time, it went silent. I instantly grabbed the throttle pulling the power hard back being what had saved the motor before while throwing the stick forward before this high drag aircraft lost speed. The aircraft gave a small spat when I through on about 10 percent power and got it back to life. Youd think I would be pretty pleased here at this point given the engine was running totally fine again but unfortunately not. It was also at this point the door swung hard open up against the wing. Im not sure if it was due to the G forces as I through the stick forward or if when cutting the power I had bumped the latch but up she went. Then she suddenly with a great force came slamming back down again and physically twisting the door putting the lower front quarter of the fibre glass panel in the cockpit with me. Its hard to describe the position the door was actually sitting in here and the situation it put me in but try and picture this. The majority of the door was still outside facing 90 degrees to the wind acting like a huge airbrake and causing the left wind to drop like a lead balloon putting the aircraft almost knife edge almost instantly. I used full right stick to try and bring the wings level but it still wasn’t quite enough and I had to use the addition of full rudder and the roll produced by is further effect to bring her level. The plane was effectively slipping now and trying to sink like anything. It was practically falling out of the sky. However the addition of power compensated the sink and kept me in the air. Though next problem, I hadn’t had a chance to put the power on. The power came on as the bottom corner of the door that came into the aircraft had slammed into my waist so hard it gave me a welt on my hip, the corner of the door got stuck under my seat belt, and the fold in the door was pushing hard against the throttle jamming it at full power. Normally this full power ofcourse should have been my saving grace however after a few seconds of full power guess what happened? The engine dropped 400 RPM and then continued to slowly fall. With my arm stuck behind the door I had no way of getting to the throttle to be able to adjust it. As the power continued to die and the speed washed off the wing started to further drop again. Jamming the stick hard right with my knee and jamming the rudder hard right with the same leg I managed to free both hands and shove the door back outside. This briefly allowed me to compose the aircraft again and tweak the throttle till the door slammed down again repeating everything all over again. This happened 3 or 4 times before I managed to get a hold of the door long enough to lock the front locking pin in place on the door. The rear pin however I could not get into place due to the fold in the door. The plane at this point with the door closed was a bit of a handful still but totally flyable. I kept the airspeed down to around 45 knots teetering on the edge of stall to reduce the pressure on the door hoping it would stay closed though as I repositioned myself onto a base leg ready to land though started to wonder how much faith I could put into that single locking pin? If that door were to swing open again while on short final and the wing were to drop like it had, that would cause the plane to cartwheel down the runway, something I was hoping to avoid. I thought I would have one last shot at the door to try and get the rear pin to lock into place but as I unlatched the door she ripped open again. Thankfully however this time she ripped straight off, missing the tail plane and fluttering into the breeze. I watched the door fall to the ground to make sure it didn’t make contact with anyone below, and as it landed in the river below me I thought how glad I was to see the bloody thing go! Suddenly I had a perfectly flyable aircraft that wasn’t trying to beat me up and now had air conditioning! After all the drama I had a greaser of a landing, taxied the plane up to the hangar and handed the keys back suggesting someone else may like to ferry the plane.

Moral of the story, don’t ignore the Swiss cheese model. Both the engine and door issues would individually have been minor and manageable issues but the combination of the two could have been very serious. There is no such thing as a minor issue, treat any issue as worst case and deal with it before you have 2!

Be very aware of the further effects of control. In most of our training we are taught to compensate for the, however by familiarising ourselves with them they can be used to our advantage in times of need. if not for the further effect of yaw this aircraft would have rolled over and gone into the ground and a fantastic pace.

Let's see, I almost burned my tongue this morning with the coffee.

Sure hope you had a second pair of undies handy. Nice save! Thanks for sharing.

Good job bud, bit of an interesting day hey. I was trying to think of different problem scenarios the power issue could cause while reading your story, pretty hard to anticipate getting hip and shouldered by a door, geez! Bet it felt good handing the keys back after that one.

A good reminder that people should be a bit cautious about what airplanes they agree to fly.
I know a guy who's offered to fly several airplanes, even knowing that a questionably-skilled person had been wrenching on them.
No thanks.

I know of one homebuilt airplane that's been crashed about 3 different times, each time was with a good stick flying it.
Pretty obvious there's a serious problem with the airplane, but that didn't stop the 2nd & 3rd guys.
(the first guy was too smart to try it again).
The 4th crash (by the owner/builder) balled it up pretty good, so apparently it's not gonna be a problem again.

Back in my younger foolisher days, I used to say that I could fly anything with one fan. But now as an ancient aviator, I think I'll limit myself to flying those things with one fan that were built by Cessna, or Piper, or Beech, or one of the others that have obtained type certificates for real airplanes. I have flown in experimentals, but only because I had already gained great trust of the builder/pilot. There are enough ways to die, limiting myself to what I do now.

Cary

Are you able to tell us what sort of plane it was?

My experience getting the 40 hours on homebuilt airplanes was limited to four; two with high RPM car engines with reduction systems and two with small Continental direct drive engines. No problem with the Continentals, nothing but problems with the car engines and the reduction systems.

The Zenith 601 barely made it around the pattern with three different props, all of which we were told to cut down to get more RPM. Finally the engine guys sent us another greater reduction. When they are sending props and reduction systems free to the builder, you know you are the R&D. When the engine guy says these little engines are bullit proof, run the other way.

The mechanical reduction on the other high RPM car engine locked up and I landed in a field next to the airport.

A-65 Continental worked great on a Corbin Baby Ace built by a cabinet maker who didn't fly. C-85 Continental was too weak to haul me and the builder of the Daisy Mae and me so I got it certified and he flew solo.

Battson wrote:Are you able to tell us what sort of plane it was?

the aircraft is called a lightwing. Australian built aircraft. dog of a thing to fly

Thanks for sharing your whole story man.
I was talking about this with another couple of pilots yesterday, they agreed it was a very interesting tale. There are a few important lessons to take away.

Thanks for sharing Tim. Great learning experience.
At first glance, being Swiss, I thought WTF is with the title. Then I read and my blood cooled off. Haha. Glad you made it out ok.

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

I didn't understand it immediately either. The use of there vs. their in the title threw me. Fixed it.

Spelling, which I struggle with, and grammar are difficult to adhere to in the computer age. Instant gratification can get in the way of the transfer of complete ideas; those with subject and verb and an agreed on letter arrangements code.

Yes your quite right. I do appologise for both the spelling and grammar throughout not only the title but the whole post. I quickly typed it up late at night the evening of the incident while it was all very fresh in my head, however it was also while I was ridiculously tierd and I posted without proof reading!. It has been my intention to go through it and fix it up but I simply havbt find a chance as of yet!

FWIW: I put 1300 trouble free hours on my Subaru conversion, in my first S-7, with zero issues. But it was a heavy rascal, and the cowling was J-3 like, with big cutouts for the oil pan and heads hanging out in the breeze, cooled great though! That created a lot of drag I realized, after flying a newer 912 Rotax powered S-7. When I throttled back in the pattern on short final, I thought I had hit a thermal, the glide and sink rate was that much better! Even the best auto conversion is heavier, especially compared to the Rotax, with it I cruise 10 mph faster and use about 1 gph less. The Soob was quiet and super smooth though. Much more powerful also then the A-65 I had in my T-Craft while having similar fuel burn. The Rotax beats them all for fuel economy and weight/power ratio.

Good story DD!

contactflying wrote:My experience getting the 40 hours on homebuilt airplanes was limited to four; two with high RPM car engines with reduction systems and two with small Continental direct drive engines. No problem with the Continentals, nothing but problems with the car engines and the reduction systems.

The Zenith 601 barely made it around the pattern with three different props, all of which we were told to cut down to get more RPM. Finally the engine guys sent us another greater reduction. When they are sending props and reduction systems free to the builder, you know you are the R&D. When the engine guy says these little engines are bullit proof, run the other way.

The mechanical reduction on the other high RPM car engine locked up and I landed in a field next to the airport.

A-65 Continental worked great on a Corbin Baby Ace built by a cabinet maker who didn't fly. C-85 Continental was too weak to haul me and the builder of the Daisy Mae and me so I got it certified and he flew solo.