The tail failure in France was in 2015. Here
CN 2017-ULM-01 - ELA07.pdf
is the DGAC (French FAA, CAA) directive that instructs all owners of ELA 07 type gyros to carry out an inspection of the tail boom at the welds under the prop before the next flight or the aircraft is grounded, it then says to carry out the inspection every 4 months or 100 hours afterwards.
And here
BEA2015-0318.pdf is the French BEA (Bureau of investigation) report into the fatal crash in June 2015. The conclusion is pretty damning.
Two failures at the welds due to fatigue.
« Les examens visuels et métallographiques ont mis en évidence de nombreux défauts de soudure : irrégularités, surépaisseurs, excès de pénétration, manque de pénétration, rochage, projections métalliques. Les défauts les plus pénalisants (manque de pénétration, rochage et excès de pénétration) se situent à la racine, c'est‑à-dire à l'intérieur des profilés. La majeure partie des longueurs soudées en zone A et en zone B présentent un ou plusieurs de ces défauts.”
Unofficial Translation
The visual and metallurgical examinations showed evidence of numerous welding defects:
Irregularities, over-thickness, excessive penetration, lack of penetration, root porosity (also called sugaring or cauliflowering), metal spatter. The weld defects that penalise the most (lack of penetration, root porosity and excessive penetration) were situated at the root, i.e. on the inside of the tubes. The major parts of welds in zone A and B included one or many of these defects.
The report goes on to say that in July 2015 there was another ELA involved in an accident where the tail boom failed. A subsequent investigation of the tail boom showed the same weld defects. Spontaneously another ELA owner sent pictures of his failed tail boom. (the welds in this photo are a disaster, I doubt if they were done by ELA).
ELA issued a Service bulletin 19 (
Service-Bulletin-Nº-07-019-ENG.pdf ) in Dec 2015 stating:
"It is difficult to know the reason of the apparition of that crack. We think it could happen due to bad
operation, modification of the original configuration, rudder flutter events or high rotor vibrations.
Whether for whatever reason, we have decided to issue this “Service Bulletin Nº19” to alert all
users to inspect the area in question and thus ensure the safety of our gyroplanes."
If it wasn't so tragic, their "it is difficult to know the reason" would be laughable. They knew only too well what the cause was, lousy welding, no backing gas when TIG welding stainless and non-existent quality control.
ELA quietly put this on their website and say it is up to the owners to remain informed. Their website hasn't functioned correctly since at least July 2017 when I asked why I couldn't download copies of the Bulletins and I still can't download all of them today. So how are owners supposed to stay informed?????
Mike G
CN 2017-ULM-01 - ELA07.pdf BEA2015-0318.pdf