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

[brianyemail-nsrca at yahoo.com]

Sorry to here any time a plane goes in.

Bill, any evidence of why that 3 blade came apart?

Brian
--- William Ahrens <ahrensw at charter.net> wrote:
> 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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