I spent some time yesterday afternoon with a somewhat ruffled flyer who had just experienced a very alarming control restriction on a powerful ex-military trainer.
Whilst demonstrating a stall turn for his passenger girlfriend, he felt a ‘clunk as it rotated, and found that the stick was jammed at the central position, ie no left aileron, right only. He recovered to level flight, and by experiment found he cound turn to the left crudely, by yawing with rudder.
He reassured his passenger he had a slight problem (!) and put out a PAN, so the circuit was cleared for him. Luckily the direction he approached from gave him a staight-in approach and he made a smooth touch-down.
We took off as many panels and covers as we could manage, but found nothing, though the stick was still restricted, as though a control lock was in place.
The engineers will have examined it today, and perhaps solved the mystery. However, the pilot has found HALF a pen still attached to his flying suit, the other half, with a screw-in barrel is missing, and this may well be the cause.
A few years ago, a Yak 52 was lost due to a screwdriver jamming the control box, and I think another stuffed in due to a mobile phone.
Keys, pens, coins, phones. I guess if you are doing aeros, a flying suit, with all its zipped pockets is for more than just dressing-up.
By: Rocketeer - 25th November 2007 at 09:48
Having established the cause of this immediate problem, I would suggest that time is now spent determining where the rest of the pilots pen is before another incident occurs.
They will, without your suggestion!…I am sure. I taxied out in a Hunter and looking up saw a nut missing from a bracket….pointed it out and we taxied back in. Aircraft required so many item missing in cockpit checks…culminating in seats out! Under the seat in a Hunter is a huge object magnet…or so it seems!
Every flyer will have lost something in the cockpit at one time. Someone I know has lost pens….it is easily done. The main thing is that people own up if they feel they have lost something. I always do the Brian Hanrahan check too.
FOD is taken very seriously in the Services. I would suggest that people mark all their pens with Dayglo sticky tape (we do!). Many pencils (propelling) have little end caps on them (protecting the eraser), cannot believe these get taken into aircraft.
A final boring story….I flew in a foreign operated Alphajet a few years back, we pulled some negative g and ended up with 8+ items of FOD (dont get hung up on the semantics of the word being damage as it detracts from the message!) in the canopy. Scooped up em, handed them to the groundcrew, who did not seem to care!
Anyway, I will now retreat back to Historic where I belong!!
By: MSW - 19th November 2007 at 13:17
Having established the cause of this immediate problem, I would suggest that time is now spent determining where the rest of the pilots pen is before another incident occurs.
By: The Blue Max - 16th November 2007 at 18:03
We had a nasty incident with a Super Decathalon a few years back, it had been modified and a smoke tank fitted under the belly between the U/C. This caused quite a bit of turbulence under the belly and when flying you could hear the belly fabric vibrating quite badly!! Whilst doing an Aerobatic practice the pilot experianced a control restriction on the elevator, to the point that he could not get full up movement, infact hardly any!! When he landed we inspected the A/C and found a piece of alluminium jammed in the elevator horn at the rear of the A/C, we examined the piece and eventually located where it had come from, The vibrating of the fabric under the belly had caused one of the fuselage frames under the belly to fail, a piece of the frame had then eventually found its way into the elevator control!!!
By: Propstrike - 16th November 2007 at 17:03
As hoped, the engineers have got to the bottom of this very nasty incident.
The cause was a bolt, which was one of a number which hold the front instrument panel in place. It had somehow loosened, backed out, migrated to the rear cockpit, and then found its way into the control linkage.
The really alarming aspect of this is that it is a component you would not include in any pre-flight check, or could probably even see, which makes it very difficult to defend against.
Aerobatics may not by definition be especially dangerous, but they do seem to increase the SCOPE for hazardous occurences. If one never banked beyond 15 degrees, then the chance of this happening would be significantly lower. Thick cushions or parachutes ? Take your pick.
By: ATFS_Crash - 7th November 2007 at 03:11
FOD = Foreign Object Damage (aka Foreign Object Debris)
Cockpit (and access panel) FOD should be taken seriously by pilots, crews, mantaince people and GA passengers. Proper cockpit management should include keeping the cockpit clean and free of loose debris that can become obstructions, projectiles, and bind controls or (short or open electrical instruments or controls)
This was a rather pointed response I gave someone that said I should not criticize the FOD in the thunderbird video. I suspect the video was edited to be a safety awareness video about cockpit FOD. I was told I was out of line for mentioning the safety issues and criticizing the cockpit management. I think it shows even the best sometimes screw up.
Potential FOD (foreign Object damage) Perhaps you’ve never heard of an instrument or a flight control failure due to debris in the cockpit. I guess you didn’t notice all the separate instances of debris loose in the cockpit? Perhaps you haven’t heard of someone wrecking their car or an aircraft because some debris like a coffee mug lodged under the brake or the rudder. Perhaps you haven’t heard of drivers or pilots wreck their aircraft because debris floating around the cockpit blocked their field of view.
I think they all appear to be innocent mistakes/oversights (that anyone can do), so I am not angry. However like I said it is a good example of what not to do, it would make a good safety training film. I think these films should be used for safety awareness to prevent mishaps, I suspect that they already are. I suspect this footage was made public for safety awareness.
Perhaps you don’t realize the significance of the loose debris not is it jeopardizing the aircraft and the pilot, add at least one point they are formation flying, so it could easily resulted in a midair. Any of that debris could’ve possibly resulted in loss of life and a great expense to the taxpayer.
All debris (including the pilot) should be securely stowed, particularly during aerobatics.
If you get in a crash, that wrench or toolkit or lunch the you have improperly stowed can become a lethal projectile.
The problem with crashes from FOD is if the crash is fatal there is often no way of determining what caused the crash, because the FOD often breaks loose on impact, unless it is caught on camera there is usually no evidence of it.
So the casually rates from FOD are probably much higher than documented. Sometimes the findings are somewhat ambiguous like instrument or control failure, however sometimes instrument or control failure is a result of loose debris, or from spills that have later compromised instruments or controls.
Perhaps if you ever have the bad experience of losing a friend or a crew member that you consider a friend or at least part of the team, to some safety oversight, perhaps then you’ll understand. I have known several people (including two family members), that have died in aviation mishaps, due to some minor oversight.
Thunderbird cockpit potential FOD
Scary and funny. Good demo of what not to do.
Things should be properly stowed.
I can’t vouch for the story but I heard one person claim this A-7 crash was from a FOD flashlight. @ 2m 6sec in this video, allegedly a flashlight lodged in the throttle linkage of an A-7 after being trapped on the wire on a carrier landing, which allegedly jammed the throttle at full. The pilot ejected and the aircraft was lost overboard.
Aircraft Mishap Montage 2
Here is a story about a Harrier crash because of a FOD flashlight.
Capt. Richard F. Davis died in 1975 when his AV-8A rolled on its side and crashed as he attempted a vertical takeoff.
Investigators discovered that a maintenance worker had left a flashlight in the engine bay, the equivalent of stitching up a patient with a scalpel still inside. The flashlight created “a severe loose article hazard condition” that could have caused the accident, the investigation report said.
Annie Davis Kennedy, the pilot’s widow, did not know about the flashlight until The Times contacted her last summer. She had been told only that there was a fire.
“After all these years, to think it might have been human error,” she said. “It rips me apart.”
Source: http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/national-reporting/works/national2.html
I saw a video of a guy in an F-14 with a can of pop and eating a hamburger in a careless and reckless manor. I warned people that I though it was a little careless to handle the pop that way. That the pop could spill on the instruments or controls and cause electrical shorts, electrical opens, and mechanical sticking; that could cause fires or crashes. They said I was nuts. Well I might be a little nuts, but I am right.
I am not against eating or drinking while flying, but it should be done carefully and with regard for safety.
The threat is not only to the electrical system, it could be a threat mechanically.
If you’re not convinced what kind of damage a soda pop can do; if you have an old tape player hold the open the tape door and spray in a little pop. Then after giving it a chance to sit out in the sun and heat for a month, try putting in a tape and playing it. I suspect your tape player and tape will be destroyed. Now let’s say that instead of the pop spraying the clutches and linkages inside a tape player, let’s say it is the linkage for your throttle, flight controls or landing gear (or ejection system on a military fighter)?
Note:
In my opinion, it is extremely immature and stupid; the video seems to suggest and approve of drinking alcohol (or and smoking pot) and flying. Just what we need to do; attract more immature gangsters, hoodlums, alcoholics and drug addicts in the aircraft industry.
May 7, 2007 A spilt cup of coffee may have caused last Thursday’s emergency landing at Ohakea Air Base which disrupted the travel plans of 122 passengers.
Two investigations are probing the cause of the electrical fault that grounded the 737 but Air New Zealand has revealed that coffee was spilt over a control panel earlier in the day.
Air New Zealand has said a “minor electrical fault” was the “likely cause” of the late night drama when fumes filled the cockpit of the aircraft and forced an emergency landing.
But one passenger is demanding answers after being told that coffee was spilt on switches in the flight deck. North Shore MP Wayne Mapp says several people were anxious and it’s a significant thing to be diverted.
“Air New Zealand needs to tell the public what went wrong, what they’re going to do to fix it,” says Mapp who was one of several politicians travelling on flight 476 from Wellington to Auckland.
The pilot left passengers in no doubt about the danger.
“People were quite concerned on board, he made it clear that it was a dangerous situation,” says Labour’s Te Atatu MP Chris Carter.
Engineers have found evidence of electrical arcing in the cockpit door locking switch but an internal memo obtained by ONE News says: “We do know that coffee was spilt over this area earlier in the day.” It goes on to say: “It is possible that unseen fluid contamination caused the arcing.”
Air New Zealand won’t discuss the coffee incident because official investigations are under way. But the airline says there was no need to remove the plane from service because engineers had replaced all the parts they believed were affected.
But Mapp says the company needs to be open to the public on the incident.
The airline says there was no lapse in safety procedures, but the internal memo asks flight crew “to be extra vigilant when passing drinks between crew members”. And they have also been reminded that fluids must never be passed over the control pedestal.
By: BlueRobin - 6th November 2007 at 07:11
A couple of lines in bought the Yak52 incident immediately to mind. Fortunately this pilot is not a statistic – well done him!
The only cracked zip on a suit should be for a barf-bag.
By: Lindy's Lad - 5th November 2007 at 22:23
I’ll be very interested to hear the results! If it is a FOD problem with regards to the pilot’s pen, then he has been VERY lucky and I hope he has learned his lesson. Its not often you get a second chance like that.
Whatever the outcome, please post it – we can all learn from it.
LL
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November 5, 2007 at 9:19 pm