In a message dated 6/26/2007 2:59:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
europa-list@matronics.com writes:
At this time, we don't know that any wear (if it was actually present) did
cause
the flutter. The AAIB/PFA may decide that the evidence shows that it did but
they haven't, to my knowledge, announced that yet.
Please don't missunderstand me, I am all for improving the integrity of the
Europa
tailplane system but let's base the discussion on known facts rather than
guesses.
Mark,
I'm not guessing about anything here. The purpose of the question I posed
was entirely aimed at obtaining facts about whether or not there anyone had
noticed a correlation between torque tube wear and landing gear type, not to
guess whether or not tailplane flutter caused the accident. It's the PFA that
is
all hot and bothered about associating pitch system wear and tailplane
flutter, not me. It's the PFA that has issued documents that infer a link to
sloppiness in the pitch system to tailplane flutter based on a single, isolated
incident, and the notion (or guess if you will) that tailplane flutter is what
caused the crash, not me. It's the PFA that seems to be the one that is doing
the guessing here, not me. All I did was read the documents the PFA
released regarding this incident and, based on their commentary, asked a
legitimate
question about whether anyone had noticed a correlation between landing gear
type and torque tube wear. Although it seems like an obvious question to me,
judging by the responses thus far, apparently no one has bothered to look for
a correlation.
If Europa 04 keeps records on who they've sold Mod 62 kits to and what kind
of landing gear the aircraft uses, it would be easy to see if the wear on the
torque tube(s) is more prevalent in mono's, trigears or neither. Since the
PFA seems to be suggesting (guessing) that wear in the pitch system possibly
lead to tailplane flutter which resulted in the recent crash in the UK, it
stands to reason that the PFA would want to isolate those aircraft where the
wear is more likely to occur, if indeed wear is more prevalent in one type of
landing gear as opposed to another and if sloppiness in the pitch system lead
to tailplane flutter and if that flutter caused the crash. If indeed this is
the case, the focus of any corrective action should be directed where it is
most needed. What the PFA has done so far is the scatter-gun approach.
Regards,
John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
N245E - Flying
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