OK, so I planted the Eclipse this weekend......

[William Ahrens]

I don’t have as good as explanation as Jerry.  But there I last Sunday
pulling up to do a turnaround maneuver,  the full roll half reverse Cuban 8.
Just before rolling and applying power the engine departs the plane due to a
blade breaking off my APC 3 blade prop, it was a very bad sound of balsa and
fiberglass breaking occurring in seconds. The YS160 broke the beams of my
soft mount and pulled thru the nose of my trusty old Typhoon 2000.  Yes I
was experimenting with this prop and had about only about 5 hours of time on
it.  As I see the engine fall from plane I decided to try and fly the plane
back to the field.  Plane flipped up when the engine left,  I then realized
the plane had poor flying qualities.  (Now I now what a really tail heavy
plane feels like.)  , Needing control, I dove the plane to the ground to get
airspeed.  During dive I was not making much progress to the field, I was
not going to make the field due the wind at my back and the plane’s poor
flying quality and would need to land in the farmers field.  It was like a
roller coaster ride down with plane, just trying to keep the plane from
flipping.  As I neared the ground I put the plane in a nose down attitude I
pulled full up and flared about 2/3 feet above ground.  Plane hits ground
nose first and the experiment is over.  Engine search took about 2 ½ hours
to find.  We actually found the blade that broke off before finding engine.
Vibration, cracked fuselage and both ailerons on wings!!,  Typhoon will need
a little work to fly again.

Bill A.

 

  _____  

From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org] On
Behalf Of bravo52
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 9:52 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: OK, so I planted the Eclipse this weekend......

 

Yep, it is no more.  Man I loved that plane.  I loved the way it flew like a
bullet.  Because of the "new" radio's and the fact that it isn't my primary
plane, I programmed in some flaps.  Well, normally, when you deploy flaps
without mixing in a little down, the plane pitches up.  I was a couple of
mistakes high and my buddy said, "put down the flaps" and so I did.  Well,
what happened next was probably the best looking crash I've seen in a long
time.  Two things happened.  First, the nose pitched up so fast ( I think I
was carrying too much speed) I think I sheered a control horn on the right
aileron.  Then came the tuck.  Oh yea, that baby tucked nose under and
rolled left.  I was on the flap switch faster than kiddies on candy but it
didn't help.  With full opposite aileron, I could barley roll level.
Unfortunately, I was about 60 degrees nose down and picking up speed.  One
of the qualities of the old Piorun Eclipse is little or no drag.  Any way,
by the time I got on the elevators and leveled out, it plane was about 3/4
of an inch off the ground and accelerating!  Then things started slowing
down.  I think they call it temporal distortion.  In very slow motion, the
plane was flying ever so smoothly across the ground when parts just started
departing the aircraft.  The first to go was the prop blades.  I actually
saw one fly off...that is right before the left horizontal stab tip just
touched the ground.  Then it exploded in a cloud of foam.  Then, the left
wing.  Pulled the wing tube right out of the fuselage.  Now mind you, the
fuselage is still scooting along at Mach 3 shedding parts like crazy.  And
even though it seemed like minuets, this all happened in about 5 seconds!
All the while, I'm thinking, "No problem, I got this.......".  In all, the
fuselage in primarily intact.  The left wing is good, the right wing lost
the wing tube and part of the wing root, allot of sheeting and some foam.
The left horizontal stab has left the building.......... But......I think I
can rebuild it!

 

Jerry L.

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