Hrmm

So, awhile back, someone who will remain anonymous crashed my TC from about 5′ off the runway. The landing gear ripped off, the fuse got all busted up in several places, cowl destroyed with the motor ripped off the motor mount! Ouch. The wing appears to have suffered some minor damage, I need to cut out some of the covering and investigate. All electronic gear survived, with the exception of the motor.

Ouch! The gear is good though

Busted!

My crash was due to pilot error. I was practicing some stuff I’ve been doing in Realflight all week, and while I can report immense progress with inverted flight, the rest of my suite had some issues.

I was in command, I had a plan, and I was having a good time.  I was practicing knife-edge flight with the T-28, and Larry was photographing the results.

I had done a few good passes, and in a North->South pass I rolled left.  For some reason I cannot explain, I failed to apply reverse rudder, and sticked the rudder left instead of right.  Not so good.

I entered the manuever at ~40 feet, and if I had come in even 10 ft higher, I would have been OK.  I was grandstanding for Larry’s camera, plain and simple, and the result was predictable.

 Humorous detail:  Nearly everybody who observed this crash saw the canopy leave the aircraft in a way that would resemble a scale ejection.

Trojan Man lives, but only sort of.

I am pleased that the wing survived with minimal damage.  No electronics were damaged in the crash, and I didn’t even break the prop!  

I was really close to pulling this out when I contacted terra firma, so i did not hit at the traditional ‘lawn dart’ angle of attack.

Phew.  I guess I had this coming for a while, considering the experimental nature of the project and the level of comfort I have with the bird.

New, improved T-28 to be developed this week.

- Eli