Incident at Ingham airport NQ...Sat morning..

[Guest Maj Millard]

Appears Sonex taildragger 19-4647 came to grief during landing at Ingham in windy conditions on Saturday. The aircraft was purchased at Innisfail to the North, and was being flown South by the new owner, who suffered back injuries in what sounds like a stall/crash after a bounce, during landing. Aircraft appears it may be repairable, but damage is extensive...Pilot possibly with low taildragger time, engine VW based...........Maj....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dazza 38]

It was fitted with a fuel injected , turbo charged Aerovee 2180 cc donk. I hope the guy insured it before he crashed it.

 

 

[planedriver]

That's sad Maj, can just imagine how he felt bringing home his new pride and joy.

 

Hopefully he'll be ok and can get it repaired to fly again, but it looks like a lot of work is reqd.

 

 

[Patrick Normoyle]

Glad he is ok, and hope he insured it, hopefully he mark it down as a lesson learned and get back on the horse as soon as he can, maybe with a bit of refresher training. Good luck to him.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Lovely little plane, feel bad for the guy.

 

 

[metalman]

I wonder about the whole "taildraggers are too hard" thing, I am certainly not anything special as a flyer ,it took me heaps of time to get even slightly north of dangerous when I started flying them. But it seems that some people just don't get the time to learn and develop , either that ,or they don't gradually push their skills, not sure really. I was chatting with a fella who's got wet ink on his logbook TW endo and has bought a Maule, I offered to ferry it home for him till he got more experiance ,his reply was " how will he get experiance if he doesn't fly it" ,,,,,I thought exactly ,,,how does it happen,,I landed at Yarrawonga last year ,the sock was straight up and 90 deg to the strip, I had it so crossed up I thought the wing would touch before the wheel , deadset, it was the toughest landing I'd ever tried ( by the end of the trip I'd had plenty of practice xwinds everywhere) but I did it ,it wasn't pretty ,but I did it . If I'd tried that maybe 100 hours earlier though I doubt it would've been a happy ending, so the questions to some of the high timers, what would be the process ,or the progression ,to being a super human taildragger driver? What kind of conditions do we look for to build expertise? What kind of attitudes can bring us undone? What should we be practicing to build confidence ( as opposed to cockiness) ?

 

Matty

 

 

[IanR]

I think the key is to push yourself in conditions you may be uncomfortable with but ALWAYS be prepared to go round no matter how experienced at TW you are - continuing with a landing where things are going pear shaped is a recipe for disaster.

 

 

[aj_richo]

Ooo bugga, big job to fix. Sonex are built like brick poo houses but can be rebuilt. The plans are designed for scratch builders but I'd be worried about the main spars as they would be a bitch to rebuild if you had to import new spar extrusions.

 

Mine is almost ready for a first flight, so this is a timely reminder!

 

 

[facthunter]

There are probably a lot of more forgiving planes around. If things go bad on a landing get out of there at the first bounce if you are low time on TW. Nev

 

 

[aj_richo]

Absolutely Nev, power on and go around, the Sonex is pretty forgiving unless its a crosswind... then it can be entertaining

 

must have bounced at least twice and probably a third to do the damage to the airframe and pilot

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

.... so the questions to some of the high timers, what would be the process ,or the progression ,to being a super human taildragger driver? What kind of conditions do we look for to build expertise? What kind of attitudes can bring us undone? What should we be practicing to build confidence ( as opposed to cockiness) ?Matty

Take up instructing in taildraggers. After a while you get to the stage where you can let a student stuff up in the worst conditions and still save it at the last minute with little more than a quick shove on a pedal and a bump on the stick. Instructing can be very personally rewarding too, and some of your students become lifelong friends. Although you lose the sharp edge again when you stop instructing, a lot of it does stay ingrained.

 

 

[metalman]

Take up instructing in taildraggers. After a while you get to the stage where you can let a student stuff up in the worst conditions and still save it at the last minute with little more than a quick shove on a pedal and a bump on the stick. Instructing can be very personally rewarding too, and some of your students become lifelong friends. Although you lose the sharp edge again when you stop instructing, a lot of it does stay ingrained.

It's on the cards, or the to do list, I've put a lot of apprentices through over the years( not all successfully though) and enjoy teaching and seeing people "get it" , just got take the first step and do it ,

Matty

 

 

[Teckair]

When you get a tail wheel endorsement that is just the start, with cross winds build up slowly 5 kts then 10 then 15, and 20. With planes start with easy types and advance from there. Anything that sits on the ground with a high angle of attack and a narrow track, like a Skyfox is not likely to be easy with ground handling.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Pilots' people want a quote on pulling off the wings for truck shipment to Brisbane. Will look at what is involved in doing that tomorrow, and put her into the Aero club hangar for a huge rain event coming this weekend.

 

She will have to wait until after Natfly if I am to do it, but I'll do my best to help them out. Left wing looks like main spar damage and both wings have under surface damage caused by main wheels after they folded back under. Also obvious plane slid quite a way on asphalt which indicates a high landing speed attempt. Maybe somebody told him to fly her on, or maybe he was attempting a wheeler...always a mistake for a low timer. Threw a tarp over her today to keep the rain out of cockpit as dripping right onto instruments. Cockpit is well appointed. Da Ja vue for me as current repairing a Pipistrel Virus that suffered a similar fate a couple of weeks back...insured fortunately.........Maj.....

 

 

 

 

[metalman]

Anything that sits on the ground with a high angle of attack and a narrow track, like a Skyfox is not likely to be easy with ground handling.

Very true, it's a challenging bugger,,,,,but also a huge amount of fun,

 

Matty