The passenger seat belt when flying solo produces equally alarming noises
when left hanging through the door. Don't know if it is possible in a
Europa but is certainly is in a PA28, I know!
Pete Lawless
-----Original Message-----
From: forum-owner@europaclub.org.uk
Subject: Re: I learned from that...
Thanks Ian... stories like yours go a long way towards saving the bacon of
other flyers.
Hope to be flying my N914PB by fall and join you in the good fight
Paul Boulet
Ian Mansfeld wrote:I don't think that this needs to be reported
'confidentially', and it may save someone else a heart-stopping moment.
Europa Classic Mono with 912 & Warp Drive 3 bladed fixed pitch prop.
After a nice day out to a distant grass airfield, the return journey of 70
minutes was fine, cruising along at 4600rpm. Joined the circuit with one
other in, and as he was slower and probably a student doing a large circuit,
I slowed and put gear down early to fit in behind him. On cross-wind, a
'tapping' noise started. A few seconds later, as I turned onto downwind and
applied a bit more power, the noise suddenly got a LOT louder, now more of a
metallic clattering, and increased to match change of rpm. At that point I
was sure that the engine was just about to turn into a bag of metal bits,
but there was no vibration and the P's & T's were all normal. A call to ATC
and I made a 'precautionary' landing on the grass cross runway- my first
ever.
Firstly, what did I learn:
- that after a moment when my heart seemed to stop, I realised that the
aircraft was still flying, so did not panic and the training kicked in.
- you can still hear unusual noises when they occur even with ANR headsets.
What did I do right: only 2 things really
- first I told ATC we had an engine problem straight away, probably about 10
seconds after the noise got worse. He cleared the airfield so it was all
mine, he did not pester me with lots of questions, and once I had decided to
land on the nearest cross runway he gave me confidence by suggesting that as
the wind was light, the cross runway might be preferred. I thanked him
afterwards, and his only comment was that this was what he was trained for.
- second, I flew the aircraft. No faffing with radio chat, just check the
gauges/fuel etc. and then concentrate on landing on the airfield. What
really helped here was that during conversion I had done side-slipping, and
just a week or so earlier I had made a full rudder sideslip approach just
for fun. I was ready to counteract the nose-down pitch and keep the speed
under control.
I didn't do a few things, such as change fuel tanks (fuel cock out of sight
so got missed), shut the engine down or turn the fuel off until the landing
roll, but then again the indications were ok and there was no vibration. I
left the power set until I knew I could get onto the runway, then brought it
to idle. Of course, that meant I was too high, and so had to sideslip off
the excess height, even adding an 'S' turn. I braked too hard as we crossed
the main tarmac runway, so that when I shut the engine down I got a smell of
burning rubber, which hastened my enthusiasm to exit the aircraft. I told
ATC I was getting out, then forgot to take the headset off, so had a bit of
a suprise as it then got forcibly pulled off my head!
To my great suprise, the aircraft just sat there once stopped - no smoke, no
oil leaks, nothing hanging off. After a very, very long look round and a
compression check, it started and ran fine, and we carefully taxyed back.
The Fire Service were great, they did not squirt anything on it, hack at it
or even grab hold of any panels, they just carefully looked around.
So what was it? Well, on the mono leg there is a brake pipe. On mine, it has
a 'P' clip just aft of the hinge, and then a ty-wrap to hold it on top of
the leg near the brake disc. This ty-wrap was missing, allowing the whole
pipe to oscillate in the prop wash and beat against the leg, resounding
through the fuselage. At the departure airfield, the grass was very long,
especially in the parking and taxi areas. Even after 70 minutes, there was
grass in the tailwheel, the flap hinges, and around the mainwheel axle. My
best guess is that the long grass caught in the ty-wrap, pushing it back and
either breaking it immediately or putting it into rubbing contact with the
tyre, brake disc or wheel so it broke. As the take-off used a lot of the
runway, I brought the gear up fairly early and the pipe never got chance to
flap about until back home.
(Before finding this, I did give the aircraft a thorough check, looking
everywhere, removing every access panel and of course removing the cowlings
to look for anything untoward, followed by a good long ground run).
Practice sideslips and keep looking out for fields to land in...
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