REFLECTOR: anyone know the story behind this- must havemissedit.....

[Greg Poole]

In a word; Wow! 

 

Knew all about the accident but never got to see the very sobering picture
of the aircraft afterwards (thanks Alex!) or the detail provided below by
Scott (thanks mate!). Would like to know a little more how streamlining
invites flutter - or do you mean that the bulk of the wings/winglets were
reduced to a point that structural rigidity was lost?

 

Yes.now that I have seen it thank God again that Brendan made it out OK!

 

..You all be careful out there now!

 

Greg in Sydney.

Std RG E.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Scott Baker
Sent: Wednesday, 9 November 2005 10:20 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: anyone know the story behind this- must
havemissedit.....

 

Yes, I know all about it.

The aircraft pictured belonged to Bob Wood.  It is a fixed gear Velocity XL
and it featured the first "Brazil" wing.  Brendan O'Riordan was the pilot.
The aircraft developed a flutter in the right vertical stabilizer
immediately after the aircraft was leveled off following the first take off;
estimated speed 110 knots.  Brendan attempted to slow the aircraft by
reducing power - and at the same time deployed both rudders.  Deploying the
rudder "loads" the winglet to help reduce the possibility of flutter.  The
flutter action was so violent that it broke the rudder cables and the right
rudder was torn from its hinges.  The aircraft became almost uncontrollable
at that point.  Brendan added air speed by lowering the pitch attitude and
headed to a sparsely populated area West of Sebastian Airport.  The aircraft
struck the ground at approximately 90 knots, hitting Palmetto trees and
ultimately flipping the aircraft inverted before it came to a stop.
Brendan, thank God, was okay.  He was released from the local hospital
emergency room after a quick examination - but as you can see in the photo,
Bob's aircraft was a total loss.

The designer of the wings, Dan Maher, and other aeronautical engineers were
consulted.  The winglet and rudder design were found to be too streamline
that it invited flutter.  The winglets and rudders were redesigned and
flight tested on the factory's XL training aircraft.  Important: Everyone
who has a "Brazil" wing has the new wing design, which was thoroughly and
professionally flight tested to 210 knots without any hint of flutter.

Velocity built Bob Wood a second aircraft, aka "Bob-II".

The bottom line is that the first "Brazil" wing had a design problem, it
resulted in a forced (crash) landing, Brendan escaped injury, all of the old
winglets and rudders were destroyed, new winglets and rudders were designed
and professionally flight tested in excess of normal flight limits, Bob Wood
was satisfied with a replacement aircraft , new "Brazil" wings are
performing great... and life goes on!

Reports of this were published on the Reflector years ago when the accident
occurred.  Many "Reflectorites" were at the Velocity Open House when the
accident occurred.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Scott B.

 

 

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Alex Balic <mailto:alex157 at pwhome.com>  

To: reflector at awpi.com 

Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 5:36 PM

Subject: REFLECTOR: anyone know the story behind this- must have
missedit.....

 

Saw this in the builder site, don't remember about it other than the one
time that there was a flutter problem with the original Brazilian wings- is
this the aftermath?
http://www.tvbf.org/gallery/?display=.%2Fincidents%2FBrazilian%20wing%2Fbob_
1_1.jpg

 


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