REFLECTOR: N4PE flies but not so good at the end

[Rene Dugas]

Brian,
I'm sooooo sorry.
Glad no one was hurt but that is no consolation on such a  
disappointing day. My heart aches for you but from a distance I'm  
delighted you're with us.
Best.

Rene' Dugas
Sent from my iPhone 3G

On Mar 29, 2009, at 8:48 PM, Brian Michalk <michalk at awpi.com> wrote:

> Group,
>
> Today was my first day to fly.  Unfortunately it resulted in an off
> airfield landing.  It's been a long day, and I wanted to get this out
> there before the FAA notice was posted.
>
> I have several theories at this point as to what happened, and I'll go
> through each one trying to identify the smoking gun.
>
> First, the flight.  Approximately 12:30 pm with a 5 knot southern  
> wind,
> I prepared for takeoff.  Some people think I am a bit cautious, and
> maybe so in many cases, but today was a good day to be cautious.  I  
> had
> the local fire department notified, and they were standing by.  Pretty
> nice folks, and I think they liked having something interesting to do.
> Dean Norris with a sharp eyed passenger took off in his Velocity to  
> fly
> chase.  I had maps made, and distributed to everyone with big  
> letters to
> help direct ground crews in a bad event.  Dean took off, and I waited
> for him to get on downwind before starting my roll.  Previous to  
> today,
> I had been doing a bit of fast taxiing, and nothing abnormal ever  
> showed
> up.  I rotated several times during fast taxi tests at about 65mph.
> Today, as I accelerated through 70, I remember thinking how odd it was
> that I had not yet rotated, but this was the first time under power.
> Rotation speed is lower without the power vector pushing the nose  
> down.
>
> I accelerated, and lifted off about 75kts.  The plan was to climb to
> 1000'AGL at 90kts.  I reached my 90kts very quickly, and kept pulling
> nose up a little bit more.  Man, there was a lot of power.  The plane
> flew straight.  No major stick forces that I can recall.  I reached
> about 900 feet, and the engine began losing power.  I immediately  
> turned
> crosswind to downwind.  I wish I could say I was maintaining optimal
> airspeed, but I don't recall any airspeeds after that point, and  
> looking
> back would have been the absolute best thing to maintain.  I pulled  
> out
> some throttle, and regained some engine power, but not enough to  
> arrest
> the descent.  I was still on downwind, and picked out a field north of
> the field to put down in.  Then I changed my mind.  With the bit of
> power I had, I decided to turn south into the find to reduce my ground
> speed.  I picked out a field, and turned to it.  I ended up about 600
> yards north from the end of the runway facing south.
>
> I will remember this day forever, and will play back the choices into
> eternity.
>
> The plane contacted ground, and came to a stop within 47 yards.  I
> stepped it off.  The ground was quite soft.  The gear all had been
> sheared off.  The right tip of the canard dug into the ground, and  
> when
> it did, caused compression crumpling on the right side of the  
> fuselage.
> Next, the plane wanted to move left, and that's when the main gear
> really dug in and sheared off, which was quite a jolt.
>
> Nothing broken for me except my ego.  I literally have a minor scratch
> on my left hand, that's all.  Amazing.  I'm not even sore ... yet.
>
> Going back to the causes, I have a few theories that need to be
> researched.  As I taxied over to the fuel pumps, I saw the low fuel
> light was on.  After taking on five gallons each side, I noticed the
> warning light had turned off.  When the engine lost power after  
> takeoff,
> the light was on.  However, I'm not sure fuel starvation is the reason
> for the power failure.  There's 4.9 gallons in that sump.  That's a  
> lot
> of time, and there is no way I could have emptied it.  The other  
> theory
> is that I was running too rich.  The electronic injection system was
> tuned out to 2250 RPM's, because that's the limit I could do in ground
> testing.  I then extrapolated out to 3000 RPM's (red line at 2800),  
> and
> then richened up the whole table to be on the safe side.  One thing I
> wish I had done during high power testing was to see how much more  
> rich
> I could go before killing the engine.  I pulled the spark plugs, and  
> the
> plugs closest to the firewall were very sooty.  The other four plugs
> looked very good.
>
> After 12 years of building, it looks like I have a little bit more to
> go.  The belly of the plane looks good.  The compression buckling
> worries me as to how I will fix that.  The wings are also showing
> compression buckling just outboard of the spar attach bolts.
> <michalk.vcf>
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