Newbies and builders - Things not to do . . .

Chuck Irby

Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
1,932
Location
Laurel, Mississippi
Aircraft
618 Dominator Single
Total Flight Time
60 solo
After about 40 hours of solo flying my Dominator single, yesterday I landed in a rough hay field. My son and I had just flown 22 miles from our local airport (he flies a trike). It was pretty windy and bumpy and we were both ready to be on the ground. The hay field belonged to a client of my son. He had been told that the field was smooth. When we saw it from the air for the first time, we saw that it was only about 200' by maybe 600' and completely surrounded by trees with a big power line down one side. We did not see the small power lines that crossed over the middle of it. In addition, we could not tell from the air that it had a bad slope to one side, and we had no communication with anyone on the ground.

After circling the field for about five minutes and getting lower and lower, I finally decided to land into the wind. Just before I would have hit the power lines that crossed the field, I saw them and managed to push the stick forward and barely went under them and made a good landing. I immediately noticed how steep the field dropped off to my right. To keep from turning over, I allowed the machine to do what it wanted to and turned it down the slope and rode it all the way to the bottom of the hill, probably 100' from where I landed. It was quite rough and the hay stubble was 6 to 8 inches high.

While I was getting my blades stopped, I radioed my son about the wires that crossed the field. He then made a descent landing.

After a visit of a couple of hours with his client and some friends and neighbors that I had not seen in forty years, we decided to walk the field to plan on how we were going to get back into the air.

After looking at it, walking over it, and driving four wheelers over it for probably 25 to 30 minutes, we decided that we could get off the ground safely by positioning our machines at a particular point and heading toward a particular tree. We would get off the ground at the top of the hill, right after we went under the power lines.

Again, I went first. I pre rotated to 200 r's and the 20 mph wind had my front wheel off the ground almost as soon as I started moving. Right after I went under the power lines my rotor tach showed 350 r's and my air speed was 55. I was off and feeling good until the machine started rotating to the left (which was almost immediately). I gave it a little right stick and it kept wanting to go left. I pushed on the right rudder peddle and realized that the cable was detached or broken. I managed to crash the machine as gently as I could without hitting one of the 15 to 20 people who were watching from the nearest corner of the field. I also managed to stay out of the trees and power lines. I tore the hell out of my machine, but got out of it with one little scrape on my left shin and a sore left shoulder and shoulder blade.

I believe the problem with my rudder cable was due to an inadequate crimp of one of the Nicopress sleeves (totally my fault). I did not have the proper crimping tool at the time I made up the cables. I remember thinking at the time, that I would take the machine to my local cable supplier and use his crimping tool to make sure the job was done right. I never thought about it again until yesterday.

My hope in posting this is that it will prevent someone else from being so careless.

If anyone has some Dominator parts for sale, I might be interested.
 
Chuck: God..I hated to read your incident...but thank god you are ok. The machine can and will be fixed. Thanks for sharing as it makes us all a little more cautious.

Stan
 
Dam Chuck this sucks. I wonder if you had allowed the speed to build further if the rudder wouldn't have straightened itself out with the anti Servo tab?
 
Chuck,

First, all that really matters is you walked away. However I'm terribly sorry to hear about your machine getting torn up. I certainly hope that the damages can be repaired and you'll be flying again soon. I'm sure everyone here will appreciate your stepping forward and letting us know the consequences of missing one small detail. If we can do anything, let us know.
 
Chuck Irby said:
I did not have the proper crimping tool at the time I made up the cables.

Hayzoos Marimba. Chuck, you realise what a close call this was?

There was a guy who did that in a fixed-wing experimental (Bowers Fly Baby) and died for the short cut. Of course in the Fly Baby your crimps hold the wings on (1920s-style flying and landing wires). His came off.

I am glad that you are OK and hope you're back in the air soon. I know you'll never make THAT mistake again! I also hope that many others learn from your experience so they don't have to have their own!

cheers

-=K=-
 
Stan, Ron, Todd and Kevin,

I appreciate your expressions and sentiment.

I do know that it could have been a lot worse, maybe not much worse for the machine, bet definitely for me.

Thank you all again, and I do hope that at the least, someone will learn from this major mistake that I made.
 
Chuck, I'm elated that you came out O.K., but devastated that you damaged your ship. Hope it's a quick rebuild and you get back up soon.
 
Chuck,
Thank God your ok. I am very glad your not hurt. I am also glad to hear your going to rebuild.
 
Ken and Mike,

Thank you guys. I really appreciate your responses.

I do intend to fly again, in the Dominator.

I just hope this incident will help someone, anyone, as it is rather embarrassing to say the least.

Mike, do ya'll have any specials going on right now on fabricated parts?

Thanx again guys,

Chuck
 
Wow!! Chuck, I am in shock!! . I am glad that nothing happen to you ! The important thing is that you are alright. The Gyro is replasesable, but you life... you can not replace that. I am very glad your not hurt!!
 
more than crimps

more than crimps

Chuck, I share the feelings of relieve that you did not get hurt but I believe this was more than about forgetting to use the right crimping tool.
Why did you land on a strip of land that you had not inspected yourself before on foot ?(Remember Holmes' accident even after inspecting the golf club field he used for landing?)
Why did you take off, knowing the state of the field, the wire down the middle and the tree to be cleared?
I fear you will run out of luck soon with such a lack of safety first attitude. I wished you only rebuild your machine after serious reprogramming.
Luc
 
Chuck, glad to hear that you are OK.
You can definately help others here. We need someone to explain why the machine yawed to the left with good airspeed and power. If we can find out what happened, we can fix the fault. Perhaps someone with an identical ship (with complete rudder cables) could take his feet off temporily and check the results.
Such a failure should never have cost you a machine.
Again, Glad you are OK to tell about it.
 
Chuck,
Glad you are safe. I am so sorry that happened to you. The high cost of those really nice swaging tools is a deterant for most people, but they are well worth the piece of mind.
 
Luc,

I appreciate what you had to say. Believe me, I have scolded myself profusely about that landing and takeoff, for not doing a thorough inspection, etc... That is why I chose the title for this thread that I did, which included the word "Things", plural, not singular. I did, and did not do several things that I should have and should not have done. But I do agree with what you had to say and I appreciate you saying it. You are totally correct.
 
Tim McClure,

If I took both feet off the petals, the rudder would stay in a neutral position.

However, I'm not sure if this was Ernie's design or Russ's, but in order to keep the cables in tension, and in somewhat of a neutral position, when not in use, there was a single "return bungy cord". Each end of this bungy cord was attached to each of the pedals. This kept a steady tension on both, pulling them away from my feet.

When the right rudder cable came loose at the bottom of the vertical stabilizer, then that bungy automatically pulled the left rudder as far as it could, which was full left rudder.

This worked great as long as both cables were properly attached.

Matt,

Thanks for your words also.

You too are correct about the high priced crimping tool. It would have definitely been worth the cost of that tool to have owned one and used it, even if it had cost $5,000.
 
Chuck, I just now read your post. I am very sorry to hear about your machine, but very thankful that you are OK ! Do you think the rough field contributed to the cable separation. Did you put her down in a crabbed position? Did she turn over on her side? Is it mostly rotor blade & head damage?

Maybe consider the Morse/ teleflex push/pull type cables. You could operate the rudder with one if you can push/ pull the pedal .
 
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Thanks Chris,

I do feel that the rough field had something to do with the fact that the cable pulled out. However, had it pulled out at a different time, the results could have been a lot worse. Even though my air speed was 55, my ground speed was only about 35.

I basically fell hard enough on the tail wheel and the left main to do a lot of damage, then laid down on the left side. While still buckled in, I had to flip the switches to shut the engine down.

Right now my photo editor is not working and I can't reduce my shots small enough to post. But two of the three left main wheel tubes were completely broken off. The hydraulic pump was broken off and the side and back plates that supported it were mangled and twisted. The mast is bent back and twisted. The seat mount angles are bent and the bracket that supported the back of the seat (12 gal) was broken completely off. (too much damage to list it all) The front of the machine, the pod and dash don't appear to be hurt at all. I don't think the front wheel strut even sustained any damage. I have not gone over the whole machine yet. The drop keel cheek plates were completely broken off. The engine mount is ruined and of course the rotor and prop. The engine and gear box seem to be fine.
 
Man , I am really sorry! I don't feel well after reading that. And right at the begining of the season. I wish you the best of luck on the rebuild. I thank God that you are not hurt.
 
On ya Chuck ,It's good to know someone is look'n after us when we stuff up,but your only alive because you kept your cool and rode it to the ground as best you could.Good work.

The same thing happened to a bloke here a couple of years ago.He was helping me muster in his machine.When he was coming up out of a "bomb" with plenty of rudder and bank,his crimp let go and he couldn't get the machine out of the turn,so he "landed" as best he could,in thick timber while still spinning and only bent the mains on one side.He was pretty p...ed off that he'd bent his machine[his first bingle in 400 hours]but he is lucky he's a good horseman,and when a horse trys to through a good horseman he'll stick with it till it stops,which is what he did with the gyro.

Here's hope'n you get airborn again soon.
 
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