Xenon Gyro

[FlyingDoc]

THI, Learjet and Saraf,
Thanks. Will certainly miss EXU.
Alan

[saraf]

Hi Alan

I know exactly how you must feel , watched out of the sky when my dad had his accident. Not a nice feeling.

Have you been able to determine what caused the vibration and the roll over?

[Gyronaut]

Hi Alan

Thanks for you candid explanation of what transpired. I applaud you for coming straight out with it and helping us to understand better - thus potentially adapting our training methods and helping to prevent a re-occurance.

I truly feel for you - looking at the photo's of your beautiful machine wrecked must hurt like hell. Sympathies mate.

10/10 to Xenon for proving the integrity of the cabin-pod which, without doubt, prevented injury

I hate speculating but I think Alan and I agree that he fell victim to the dreaded 'High Speed Blade Flap'. I have posted my views on this under the thread viewtopic.php?f=20&t=15604. Please read it and comment whether you agree or otherwise.

Would anyone mind if a copy of Alan's post is put under Accident and Incidents for those who may not necessarily follow the Xenon thread? I think we can all learn from his experience.

Len

[Vertical Tango]

Len, Like you, I have been very worried about Alan's mishap and this sort of accident puts all of us in front of the reality that we never know enough.
Alan is a very meticulous person (I know, I share a hangar with him!) and his accident can be put to only "ignorance" (and we are all somewhat ignorants) and definitely not to reckless flying. He would never take a risk, even cancel a flight and return to base due to an intermittent radio.
Alan, we want to see you in the air soon, even in a PPG or a Quicksilver MXII !

[grahame]

Any further news on this mishap? Any more understanding of what might have happened? I'm asking not as an 'accident vulture' but out of pure concern to learn.

[braam hechter]

Hi Grahame.

Thanks for the question. I had discussions with Uncle Alan after the accident. He is currently on vacation and will be back in approx 2 weeks. He had time to think and we would like to look at the pre-rotator, amoungst other things, when he is back. I think, that once we have looked at the machine, we will be able to make some educated deductions.

I have flown with Uncle Alan and can share Vertical Tangos sentiment "Alan is a very meticulous person (I know, I share a hangar with him!) and his accident can be put to only "ignorance" (and we are all somewhat ignorants) and definitely not to reckless flying. He would never take a risk, even cancel a flight and return to base due to an intermittent radio."

Once we have an idea, we will decide on the way forward. This may include addition preflight checks, etc.

Greetings and fly safely, REMEMBER, expect the unexpected...

Braam Hechter

[FLYNOTE]

I will always remember the advise of my Instructer during my instrument rating years ago. He was Willie Meyer who piloted the airplane on the fatal day that Hansie Cronje died. When asked , when do you know if you could fly in clouds safely or not without a radar or stormscope to guide you, his answer was; " If it looks bad ... It is bad" Same can be said for so many scenarios relating to aviation and the craft you fly. You know your gyro. If anything feels wrong, chances are something is wrong. And then of course our old motto " when in doubt , cut it out". I have taken off in the past and felt a 'funny' , slightly strange feel to my rudder and told myself that it must be my immagination. Upon landing I have found my nose wheel spat loose and that was causing the slight shuddering feel on my feet. It could have come off. If it looks bad it is bad. If it feels wrong it is wrong.

[braam hechter]

Good morning All.

While we are all busy planning for Gariep, there has been things happening in the "wings". Uncle Joep is back home and the orange machine, lemoentjie, is awaiting him. He will be flying with either Louis or Len down south. Frank Pinto is busy with his training at Brakpan at 303 with Matthew. This is progressing slower than expected, this mainly due to the weather not conducive to flying. He is at least getting a lot of pre flight experience. Jaco Hotzhauzen's aircraft is also ready for delivery, to his farm on the Botswana border. Jaco has a farm of 20 000 hectares and the machine will be used to inspect fences and waterlines. Jaco has prepared a nice gravel runway and has a hunters lodge which is being prepared for fly-inn guests. (This can house approx 16 people.) It is approx 400 km from Jhb. The position is as follows, and you can see it on Google Earth. Runway S 25deg35,849' E 022deg50,194' We are planning a fly inn when Jaco has finished his license.

Have a stunning day, fly safely, and i am looking forward to seeing you all at Gariep.

Greetings

Braam

[Jabbanaught]

Do you think Frank will be ready for Gariep ?

[THI]

Uncle Joep is back home and the orange machine, lemoentjie, is awaiting him. He will be flying with either Louis or Len down south.

I thought Joep's Xenon is already at Morning Star?

Who's oranje Xenon is at Morning Star then?

[FlyingDoc]

Sorry for the delay in the second post on my accident. I have been at the coast and wanted to look at a few things on the craft again.
In the first post I ended with " Then all Hell let loose"....

Basically to recap, Pre-rotated to my normal 250-270 RPM with the engine at 2500 RPM. I had switched off the solenoid at 90 RPM ( my normal practice.) pushed the Pre-rotator lever forward, pulled the stick all the way back, and applied engine to 4000, checking that the rotor RPM came up again to 270, increased engine power to 4400, nose came up, held nose and increased power, then noted an "unusual" vibration! ( this was not an engine, or rotor vibration, nor a wheel one) I was just considering pulling power, when the craft lifted off the ground, and then "all he'll broke loose!!". ....

What happened next was the nose jumped up high enough to be in-line with my line of sight. I immediatedly pushed the sticj forward to hold it down... this is did, (possibly too much!!) and we then somersaulted down the runway.

My normal procedure was to increase power gradually, usingthe runway. On my first solo in this craft, after doing dual with a 115kg instructor, who insisted on pushing Balls to the wall, I lifted off within about 10m, leveling off at about 20metres agl ,calmed down flew straight level down the runway and have never set "balls to the wall" again!!!!

Looking at the location, this started at a point on the runway (08 at Krugersdorp) just where the last hangar to the south of the runway ends. There was a 5-10Kph wind from the South.

So, what has puzzled me, is where did this "uncontrolled input" come from. The vibration that was felt just prior to lift off could have been the pre-rotator been engaged. However, I have inspected it now and there is no sign of any abnormal wear etc. It still rotates easily.

What does concern me is how easily the mast broke, where it broke and how thin the "webs" are in this double "H" section. The mast broke off at the first attachment point to the body. This is some 30mm below the cowling. There is no damage at all to the surrounding glassfibre cowling.

I have given this section of the mast to Braam who will have it inspected by a Fracture Mechanic.

Other than that I don't know what else. Just to say that until that nose rose so rapidly, and so high everthing was normal.

To the guys flying to Gariep, have a great time..I was really lookig forward to it, but I will now be in Australia (earning some money for the replacement craft!!!)
Regards
Alan

[FLYNOTE]

And this weekend I flew my Xenon for the first time in six weeks ! Been earning fuel money for Gariep
The phantom struck again just after take off. Fuel flow gradually down from 32 lts on take off to Zero on cruise. What now? I earthed the RDAC back in January when this problem first appeared. It seemed that the problem was solved but ' here we go again'. So Eric comes to do my 100 hr inspection service and instead of replacing the fuel flow sender unit, he takes off the inlet fuelpipe and finds a piece of loose rubber floating in the fuelline on the inlet side of the impellor. Now here is some advise for you guys .If you find a loose piece of rubber drifting in your fuel line on the intake side of the fuel flow impellor.. DO NOT REMOVE IT. When I had it removed my Gyro suddenly indicates that it uses 21/22 lts per hour. With the rubber in the fuelline I was only using 0 to 3 lts per hour on cruise. Surely this is better or what
Jokes aside. We found that the fuelpipes were "snotty" inside and believe that the pipes installed in Poland are reacting to our fuel. I think that we will have to replace all the fuellines soon. Will keep a good eye on this one.
For now , all is great and the Xenon is still flying like the beaut that she is. Now for the Lightspeed Zulu headset. The ANR switches off after two minutes in flight and you have to switch the set on again each time. You skrik your gat af if you are cruising along happily in relative quietness and the next moment the ANR kicks out and you get a full Rotax RST blast in your ears. Any ideas from any headset fundies?
I want it sorted for Gariep which is in TWO WEEKS TIME !!!

[FlyingDoc]

Some sad images.....

[Sukkelaar]

Vat baie om die trane te keer en eina te keer

Innige meegevoel my maat

groete

[Vertical Tango]

Johan, the answer is to build your gyro yourself. You don't have any of this rubbish !