Fly-inn Sweden (!).
Raimo,
Thank goodness you and your passenger were not harmed. Two folks have now shown
that it is possible to survive a lightning strike in the Europa.
Gents, that's enough. No further need for continued demonstrations!
I appreciate your candor in the description of the event. We all need to learn
---From our collective experiences.
Now take a brief rest with the family while you investigate and repair the
damage.
Then you'll be ready to get back on that horse and ride again.
Check six,
Bob Borger
On Sunday, June 08, 2008, at 05:28PM, "Raimo Toivio" <raimo.toivio@rwm.fi>
wrote:
>
>Hi all
>
>My sad responsibility is to report also my incident as follows:
>
>I was flying back from Barkaby to Finland Tampere (EFTP) via Ume (ESNU).
>Two legs, 3 hrs and 1 hrs 20 minutes.
>Half an hour from EFTP I met two thunder storm centres. I elected to fly
>between
them.
>Seemed for me to be just a normal practise. QNH altitude 4000 feet, airspeed
>130
knots,
>ground speed 150 knots, air temp 22C, plane was well trimmed and loaded near
>MTOW
>658 kg /1450 lbs.Almost overcast (5/8) about 6000 feet. We saw quite strong
>lightnings
>both sides.
>
>Suddenly I got a STRONG electric shock like static or similar to my right hand
---From the power lever.
>My friend got a similar shock to his ears through head sets.
>Very heavy raining started immediately.
>Radio started awful whistling and whining.
>
>What the hell was happening we asked each others.
>Plane was still flying well.
>We saw no damages on the wing surfaces etc.
>Radio stopped whistling after five minutes or so.
>I was checking all the equipments I could.
>
>During that inspection I noticed I have no trim position display any more (I
>have
those green MAC leds).
>I tried to trim but nothing happened.
>CB (Europa suplied) was in position.
>I tried via change over swith my another lower speed trim adjusting switch but
nothing happened.
>Just for in case I opened trim CB to avoid possibility of the trim auto-run
>case.
>
>I have to mention we had with Jos a discussion of that case and he stated that
if it goes to the other side,
>it is impossible to keep pitch control any more. And that discussion was this
morning!
>
>So, I was flying over EFTP. Altitude 3000 feet. There was a whole circus like
several fire trucks, police and
>ambulances. Carefully I slowed the speed to 80 knots to test what happens
>during
flaps/gear lowering.
>You remember I had lost my electric trim and it was trimmed for 130 knots.
>
>During my normal abroach speed 70 knots I can tell you the nose was VERY heavy
but still controlable.
>Just in case my strong friend helped me by pulling his stick also.
>I keeped that speed until touching the runway and it was one of my best
>monowheel
landing ever
>(like Jos reported today in his other case EFHF).
>
>ATC men, fire men and all the others congratulated me. We were alive and OH-XRT
was still in one piece.
>
>I taxied to the hangar and after half an hour trim motor started to work by
>itself.
>Still there was no its position lights. Trim CB was working normally.
>
>We fast checked the plane and obviously the lightning has gone trough stbd-side
stabilator pip-pin to the structure. The pip-pin cover (transparent sticker)
was explosed and the head of the pip-pin was black.
>
>That was it. I drove home, kissed my daughters and wife and opened a bottle of
bier.
>
>BTW - when we were over EFTP, my friend measured my pulse rate and it was 150.
>
>That was an interesting experience. Some of you know that I made last summer a
serioush but super lucky
>forced landing in Lappland because my Cessnas mechanical trim was working
>uppsidedown.
>That was because a service error of certified service company Arctic
>Airservice.
>
>Trim controls are my nightmares and devils lurking to make me a bad day.
>
>I grounded my Europa of course. I am not sure what to do now.
>If I later decide to continue flying, I have to fix it first and and check it
carefully.
>I called Jos (thank you) and he advised me to check everything.
>
>Have you there any ideas for me, please?
>
>Raimo
>OH-XRT, 64 hrs, grounded so far
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