Interesting flight back from Sandown UK this afternoon. It seems I lost a flap
pin somewhere (into the tube I think). On takeoff from a bumpy field had a
sudden
strong port wing down tendency. I assumed the flaps were different and wondered
if the mono port wing leg had collapsed. But, I was in the air and when
retracted seemed fairly normal. On arrival back at my base strip I tried a few
things at altitude and a couple of simulated approaches. It seemed just about
controllable if into wind. So I landed in a square field at the end of our
narrow
strip so it could skew around if required. Phew, all ok, the leg did collapse
and it skewed slightly in the last few yards but no grass contact with the
prop and no damage to the wing end. I assume that the pin wasn't well locked
in and had ratcheted out on repeated use. The tube still controlled the flap
but it could move about an extra few degrees and no longer could be extended
enough to lock the leg down. Perhaps some big G movement might have flicked it.
Keeping that pin lubricated better might be a good idea and some loctite on
the threads.
--------
Graeme Bird
G-UMPY - Mono Classic/XS FFW 912S, Woodcomp 3000/3W CS, trutrak Gemini 2 axis
ap, pflarm, ads-b out, 8.33khz, mode S, FP 5, Aera500 & SD on Nexus,
250 hours & 4 years on the Mono, 880 total
g@gdbmk.co.uk
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