Ed Anderson wrote:

Results after a (believed) Mallard duck and RV-6A horizonal stab meet

in the

same airspace.  Pilot reported, aircraft response was not noticably
different although elevator control feel somewhat "mushy" at

touchdown

speeds. Traffic pattern engagement, pilot flying into the sun.

Ed Anderson
Matthews, NC
RV-6A N494BW
eanderson@carolina.rr.com

Wow that guy is lucky the stab spar did not fail. I suggest all you
guys with RV's make a bolt on clip that attaches the leading edges of

the

stab to the fuselage. Similar to what Beechcraft did with the
V Tail Bonanza fix. Sometimes one must beef up the aircraft structure
purely for reasons other than being strong enough to take normal
flight loads. Take this incident as a warning.

Feel free to pass this comment on to Van if you wish.

Paul Lamar

I'll bet it ruined the duck.  Good thing it was mostly symmetrical,
could have lead to a high "out of trim" situation and a bad outcome.

Bill Freeman
Long EZ builder & pilot
BSME, MSME
EAA Technical Counselor

So true, Bill.  The RV series also has a lot of elevator authority as an

aerobatic aircraft and fortunately the spars and designed accordingly which
I think has helped several RV types who have had the misfortunte to engage
feathered fowl in the air.

Ed Anderson

 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.              Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/            http://www.linux.org