REFLECTOR: N4PE flies but not so good at the end

[Brian Michalk]

No, thanks.

I got the plane on a trailer and toted it back to the hangar.  I was 
very close to the airport.

Milton Mersky wrote:
> Brian:
>
> What can I do to help?
>
> Do you need my pick up?  It is a Toyota Tundra and can haul or pull 
> anything.
>
> Milt
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Michalk" <michalk at awpi.com>
> To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
> Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 8:48 PM
> Subject: REFLECTOR: N4PE flies but not so good at the end
>
>
>> 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.
>>
>
>
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