I knew a mechanic that was involved in a loss of life accident. It was an unambiguous situation. He made an error in good faith that had catastrophic consequences for the pilot. The mechanic never worked again and eventually committed suicide. I expect the mechanics working at riddle are good people that take their jobs seriously and conduct themselves professionally. Those are the kind of people that have the hardest time with these type of failures. I really hope the reports are wrong.
When I first joined PoA I had an idea to put some accelerometers and stress sensors throughout the airframe, etc.... the actual electronics are cheap and simple and the coding for them is not hard.. someone with patience and some coding skill could take the data and feed it through an arduino or something.. BUT, I was readily advised that the costs, certifications, etc., made that a non starter. Pretty stupid really. We're talking <$100 in electronics to provide some really good data on aircraft loads and how it proceeds through its fatigue life
Yeah.. that's the thing with fatigue.. eventually it gives way. It's an insidious killer. I must admit I get a little uneasy climbing aboard many of the 1970s rental trainers so many clubs have. How many times was that plane maneuvered a little over Va, or landed hard, or done some absurdly tight steep turns... how many times did some cowboys go out for a joyride??
Would also make it more difficult to remove the wings for ground transport if necessary.
The spar is designed that way mainly for ease of mass production, and cost. It also makes it easier and cheaper to replace a wing if damage would occur. Also for transport purposes being able to pull the wings off in the field and flatbed the plane is a simpler process. Piper has used this basic spar system for about 70 years, it is overall very reliable ( not sure about the PA46 which I know actually has 2 spars although one is partial span), and failure is very rare.
I have wondered the same, I'm sure there's a textbook answer, however the everyday pilot probably just comes down to judgment.. and given that many of these are rentals, and there's a certain amount of embarrassment in reporting a screw-up, I bet most hard landings and exceedances are not reported unfortunately.. I have always just hoped that the annual inspections do their due diligence in looking for any airframe issues
I remember that picture! I have seen that trick done a few times, with other planes too.. the pictures are definitely a cool party trick, and do instill a sense of confidence, but I wonder how much physics wizardry is actually going on there
I mean, it was obviously a cost to reason they did the separate wings, however at less than 40 ft I don't see why it would be that hard to just lift the fuselage off from the top of it. 40 ft will still fit in just about any commercial trailer
In theory a split spar is just as strong or possibly even stronger than a single spar. At the pass through you have more metal. But, by having another joint and more parts, it is an additional point of failure
When metal is visibly distorted after a landing, that’s a good indication.
Agree that it isn’t a spar issue, but I doubt corrosion alone is going to result in failure of the attach fittings. More like corrosion combined with overstress.
A well-written and cogent post, thank you
And they can get the EE students to design them as a project.
I wasn't aware of a photo of the spar. The Piper spar protrudes 6" to 10" from the wing and is assembled to the fuselage by inserting this end of spar into the carry through spar in the fuselage. The PA-28-181 that had a wing separation on March 30, 1987 with a cracked spar at the wing root.
here's the PA 28 wing attachment.....Note the spar does not continue thru the fuselage. The bottom bolts protrude thru the bottom of the fuselage and is covered with a plastic cap. This area is an important inspection point and can gather corrosion.
here's the PA 28 wing attachment.....Note the spar does not continue thru the fuselage. The bottom bolts protrude thru the bottom of the fuselage and is covered with a plastic cap. This area is an important inspection point and can gather corrosion.
ERAU has a policy/practice where ALL they use the Arrows for is takeoffs and landings. That’s it. No cross countries. No chandelles, lazy 8s....etc. Just takeoffs and landings. All the other maneuvers/phases of training are done in fixed gear planes.
I wonder what those upper wing skins looked like? Beat to hell?
