Kolibri
FW and Gyros
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2014
- Messages
- 1,636
- Location
- Wyoming
- Aircraft
- Cessna 152, 172, 172RG, 177, 206 -- Piper 180 -- RV-7A -- Calidus -- RAF2000 -- Sport Copter II and
- Total Flight Time
- 1000+
And then at the same time you write things like, "I have seen more corroded rod ends on many gyroplanes that have had condition inspections by A&P mechanics"In my opinion based on my experience a good A&P mechanic can do a good annual condition.
and "There are mechanics I respect who would not have replaced [those] rod ends for corrosion".
I do not consider missing an already fractured and deeply corroded control rod -- a non-airworthy flight critical part -- as permissible in a "good annual condition".
Are you truly unaware how often you contradict yourself, even concurrently within the same thread?
Fine, everyone can say that same thing. However, we're dealing with "probable cause".I don't know when the control rod end broke and it may not have been the cause of the accident.
Your version relies upon unseen (and unseeable from the ground) phenomena such as wind shear or PIOs or PPO.
I, however, am sticking with the more rational and provable PC established by the NTSB.
On this point, Bryan Cobb in the N5002E thread made a valuable observation:
The physical evidence of the previously fractured/corroded rod end cannot be easily dismissed or minimized, as you've tried to do.Here's what I can contribute based on my being the investigating officer in almost 1500 traffic accidents:
1) Witness reports are rarely reliable unless physical evidence corroborates their statements.
2) Physical evidence never lies.
3) I would not conclude that the blades "folded" in flight, based on a witness report unless I had concrete physical evidence
that proved that happened at a specific time in the sequence of events.
You've attempted to pass off the corrosion as the result of the wreckage being submerged for a day, even though other broken rod ends did not also begin to rust.
I'm not buying it. I've seen and handled the wreckage. You haven't.
Rather than wind shear, etc. the more likely scenario is that the control rod end broke in flight, and in doing so N5002E became uncontrollable and chopped its own tail.
Yes, and here's one the larger morals of the N5002E story: never buy a used RAF from or through Dofin Fritts.go on the NTSB website and read about gyroplane accidents and think about what may have happened and what you can do to keep from becoming an NTSB report.
Whether because of venality or apathy, he simply cannot be trusted.
One should suspect any of his maintenance logbook entries, and personally double-check his alleged work.
That alone will significantly raise an RAF newbie's odds of survival.
You seem to nearly always insert such digs.For those with poor reading comprehension a brief summary:
Despite what some people claim wind affects gyroplanes and the weather can be radically different just ten miles away.
Some pilots don't understand the most basic concepts and pretend they do.
Not only are they often fake straw-men arguments, they are snotty.
I know that wind affects gyros. I know that weather can vary greatly from just a few miles away.
I never claimed otherwise.
What I did do was disagree with you that wind and weather were likely more of a probable cause than mechanical failure.
However, you seem to often conflate disagreement with ignorance vs. a mere difference of opinion.
That's not the correct lesson here, because key people in the chain were not careful.Sometimes things just go wrong no matter how careful we are.
I suspect that Mahler performed as well of a pre-flight as Fritts had trained him for.
I believe that Mahler did all that he knew how to do.
But, if Fritts did not care enough to replace the corroded rod ends, and his own twenty CFI PIC pre-flights did not discover the cracked one,
perhaps you could get off Mahler's case for also missing what Fritts missed -- and what your "respected" A&Ps would have missed.
Regards,
Kolibri