Tweet
As most of you have seen, my gyro is now for sale as parts so I thought I would give my account of what I am sure happened and what I think happened.Hopefully other low hour pilots can learn from my mistake.I was conducting circuits and had just done a low level for about 1/3rd of the runway and powered on to climb out. At about 50 ft I heard a horrid sound combined with a sudden vibration and in those first few seconds I panicked and broke the cardinal rule, I Stopped flying. I"m sure those few seconds could have been the difference in what happened and a possible non-event. I think at the same time I cut the power and by the time I recomposed myself and lowered the nose, there was not enough altitude to regain enough airspeed. I flared with what I had, landed very hard, bounced and rolled to a stop. At this point I thought I had gotten away with it until the gyro slowly tipped to the left and the rotors struck the ground.I believe the noise and vibration was caused by damage to the prop which I can"t explain. I"m pretty sure the prop wasn"t turning when the gyro rolled on to it"s side as there were no rotation marks on the ground and the damaged blade was up in the air.Anyone have any ideas?Bruce.
-
-
Bruce, Sorry to hear mate
-
When the noise and vibration happened it was a slight crosswind. Thinking back, the noise i heard was the same as when once doing strip runs, something flew up into the prop and damaged it. The gyro rolled onto its side due to the left mains collapsing from the impact. It must of held on for a short time before giving way.
Comment
-
Bugga! Interesting crack there. I"ve got a Bolly as well and im not really fond of it. Was it a sealed Strip or rubble? Stones can make a mess of a prop, Wouldn"t be surprised if that"s whats caused it. Out of interest where on the undercarriage did it fail?Hope this doesn"t stop you from flying.
Comment
-
Bugga! Interesting crack there. I"ve got a Bolly as well and im not really fond of it. Was it a sealed Strip or rubble? Stones can make a mess of a prop, Wouldn"t be surprised if that"s whats caused it. Out of interest where on the undercarriage did it fail?Hope this doesn"t stop you from flying. Very interested in your thoughts on Bolly as I am about to purchase one, can you elaborate some more please?Graeme.
Comment
-
Hi Graeme. Well they aren"t as strong as a warp drive, i had the dura-tuff leading edge start to lift off lucky, i discovered that before flight. By all means thier probably just as good as any for preformance, i just like something that can take alittle abuse when it needs to
Comment
-
The strip is a dirt strip. The mains failed at the shockie.
Comment
-
I"ve just had a very similar incident. My radiator broke off its mounts and went through the prop. Luckily I was quick enough to nose over and get it to the ground safetly. I broke 2 blades on the prop and my radiator was found in the padddock but it looked like a pile of aluminium.
Comment
-
I know buggerall bout glass blades, but it looks like it fretted/split through fatiege or poor bonding.I wouldnt think it wasa rock or sumthn falln off the machine coz theres no contact mark on the leadn edge, which is where they always hit.The most obvious reason seams to be an "in flight blade flap". Dont know how you figure that. ??? Powern out of a regular S/L wont flap anythn.Just lookn at the last pic you put up, im wundern if the "dead spot" created by the big radiater isnt causen the blades to flex every time it goes past?Is there any evidence of the same "split" startn to happen on the other two blades?
Comment
-
so there is not a broken bolt or just a nut missing from the engine area ???? after a crash we are all looking at the broken shocky area, any thing else missing? its certainly one hell of a straight split, good to hear your ok bruce.
Comment
-
Looks like something that should not have exited the blade ... did so. Have a look inside the blade for a void where a balance mass might have been.
Comment
-
Could not see anything missing from the engine area. Apart from the split in the blade, I cannot see any other damage to it. There is however a small piece missing from the second blade. The third blade has not a mark on it.
Comment
-
Trailing edge damage like that is very unusual.Id be takn it to a Fglass expert, coz theres no sign of impact.
Comment
-
Bruce, I think I would be referring that to the manufacturer?Aussie Paul.
Comment
-
Bruce very interesting that 2 of the 3 blades have longitudinal separation. I suspect that Birdy has it nailed. That horrid noise you heard just before the vibration sounds like some form of cavitation/harmonic. This could be a combination of blade length,engine pulse, bad air (behind the radiator) and rpm all adding up to the "sweet spot" which has destroyed the blades. From the photos those cracks appear to be 1/3 & 2/3 along the propeller chord line - the 1/3 distance being the centre of lift for an airfoil. Yep definitely a question for the manufacturer.Best of luck............Chook.
Comment
Comment