briankizner
2013-06-02, 03:56 PM
I recently posted about flying in the wind and the cost of nosing over a big plane. Today is a nice spring day in Labrador, 10 degrees, sunny and 26 kilometer per hour wind from the Southeast. This is a near perfect crosswind at my flying site.
I went out with my four year old beaten up but very flyable .46 glow -powered Tango and my 55cc Extra 300. I flew the Tango three times with no difficulty. The plane looks pretty rough but flys well. I then flew the Extra. Takeoff and flight was all very good. It really is the best aircraft I have ever flown. My landing approach was pretty, straight along the runway with a very visible crab angle to keep on course. As I neared the ground, I cheated a bit and moved the plane so that it would touch down on one side of the runway and then roll out diagonally across to the other side to reduce the crosswind. The problem I had not counted on was that the gravel runway is a bit soft and muddy along the sides and acted as a very effective brake on the wheels. The plane slowed down and slowly nosed over. There was no damage other than a 1/3 inch nick on one propellor tip and rough edge on the other prop tip. The damage was small enough that I (stupidly, I know, as the prop had to be unbalanced, much like the pilot) gassed up and had another flight.
My intention now is to sand away the damaged section of the tip and also reduce the other tip to more or less match, then harden the exposed wood with thin cyanoacrylate, then rebalance. The effect will be to change my 23-8 to a 22.5-8.
I do have two spare props and will probably mount one of them. However, I do not think there is any downside to my plan. I doubt I will be able to notice any performance difference. Any comments? Can there be hidden damage I don't see?
I went out with my four year old beaten up but very flyable .46 glow -powered Tango and my 55cc Extra 300. I flew the Tango three times with no difficulty. The plane looks pretty rough but flys well. I then flew the Extra. Takeoff and flight was all very good. It really is the best aircraft I have ever flown. My landing approach was pretty, straight along the runway with a very visible crab angle to keep on course. As I neared the ground, I cheated a bit and moved the plane so that it would touch down on one side of the runway and then roll out diagonally across to the other side to reduce the crosswind. The problem I had not counted on was that the gravel runway is a bit soft and muddy along the sides and acted as a very effective brake on the wheels. The plane slowed down and slowly nosed over. There was no damage other than a 1/3 inch nick on one propellor tip and rough edge on the other prop tip. The damage was small enough that I (stupidly, I know, as the prop had to be unbalanced, much like the pilot) gassed up and had another flight.
My intention now is to sand away the damaged section of the tip and also reduce the other tip to more or less match, then harden the exposed wood with thin cyanoacrylate, then rebalance. The effect will be to change my 23-8 to a 22.5-8.
I do have two spare props and will probably mount one of them. However, I do not think there is any downside to my plan. I doubt I will be able to notice any performance difference. Any comments? Can there be hidden damage I don't see?