Ground loop

[Yenn]

I did my first ever ground loop today, that is after over 500 hours of taildragger time.

 

I had a belly fairing on the Corby come adrift. I heard it go on take off and knew what had had happened, so wasn't too concerned. It was only flimsy fibreglass, covering the undercarriage bolts and fuel drain, with a couple of holes for the brake cables to go through.

 

I did a wheel landing, which for me is very unusual and also a bit faster than 3 pointing it and was feeling happy about it, when I suddenly took a dive towards the fence. Full left rudder wasn't enough and I had visions of destroying the fence, prop and whatever else, so I put in a bootfull of right rudder. What an experience, from 15kts to a standstill in zero seconds, the left wing tip nearly touched the ground and I was safely a couple of meters from the fence. The fibreglass must have put enough pressure on the bowden cable to apply the right brake.

 

Looking back I should have used left brake, instead of thinking all I needed was rudder, but I was behind the plane.

 

Now I have some repair work to do on the block at the rear of the fuse which locates the tailwheel spring, Such is life. But I can at least still fly, just wheel out the RV4 and use 3 times as much fuel, to go 40% faster.

 

 

[kaz3g]

I was looking at an Rv6 yesterday and notice the starboard wingtip and aileron had been ground down a bit. Closer inspection also revealed some small wrinkles in the upper surface of both.

 

My thought at the time: "There but for the Grace of God go I".

 

Kaz

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yenn,

 

Happy to hear you got through that one ok. Sounds like you made the right moves at the right times .

 

I used to say you don't know how NOT to do a ground loop until you've done a good one !......

 

The Lightwing I currently fly is so inert that I've almost forgot that it would even be capable of doing one.

 

I did however fly a very nice Kitfox 4 912 (with narrow gear) the other day and managed two very nice landings, the first which could easily have been a wheeler. It may have been because I had the owner sitting beside me that I went for the guaranteed safety of a good ol three-pointer both times, or could it have been that I had a similar experience in a Skyfox last time I flew one, also like yours, the result of a mechanical problem on one side !......I once did a 720 degree groundloop going around twice in a cloud of dust after a tailwheel broke on me....nothing to do but cut the switches and hang on once the side loads came in ...the Kitfox 4 with the near new 80 HP 912 which has just been flown to the Kimberlies and back was an absolute delight to fly by the way, and an aircraft with heaps of character.......................Maj.....

 

 

 

[metalman]

Yep "but for the grace of god go I" I've had one excursion off the runway but that was a howling crosswind , a bit of dancing and all was good, just whenever I think I'm pretty good at this tail dragger gig it gives me a reminder that tears await my lazy feet,

 

 

[kaz3g]

Is that a broken rubber band I can see there, Maj?

 

Kaz

 

 

[AVOCET]

I

 

Is that a broken rubber band I can see there, Maj?Kaz

i thought it was the PULL starter !

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I did my first ever ground loop today, that is after over 500 hours of taildragger time...

Thanks for posting that, Yenn. Plenty of us might not have, but your report upholds the spirit of constant learning fostered by this forum.

My own ground loops were very private affairs, resulting from lots of fast taxiing to get the feel of a new aircraft. I had chosen windy days when nobody was around, so got to quickly learn quite a bit.

 

It took hours to clean the green grass clippings off the duco!

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

Looks like his belt:banned:

 

 

[Yenn]

Kaz. Don't like the sound of wrinkles in the wing skin. My ground loop was entirely volountary, I could have continued on and hit the fence, just needed to stop. Just goes to show, no matter how many hours you have it is still easy to lose it.