Man, I hate to see that. At least you're (mostly) OK!

Another glad you are ok.

Can't imagine how P.O.'d you must be. You can test the engine on a bench or whatever right?

I was really hoping that was a RoF screenshot...
Glad you are not too banged up from your little incident.


Wheels

It does look like a RoF screenshot doesn't it? Shame he can't just hit 'refly'

Bloody hell mate; sorry to see your baby in such a sorry state, but you were lucky not to crack something neck or head-wise.

Oh damn...

Happy you are healthy, and best wishes for a fast and cheap rebuild with no unforeseen issues. I really *hate* throwing my racebike away so I can somewhat guess how it must feel to flip an aircraft... like 100x more complicated to get everything sussed and reviewed for the next flight... :/

Sounds like you didn't yet have the gun mounted? Thank god for small savings... shame about the beautiful prob of course.

Oh, gun was mounted!

The center section's aluminum sheet made a perfect bowl around it, protecting it.

The grass was very spongy, too, with all the rain we've been having.

Just curious Dart, how did they right her? Did they pivot her over on the prop or lift her into the air and do the pivot while suspended?

It does, when it popped up in my email I thought Dart was trying to pull a joke, it was only when I came to the forum that I saw the picture in full detail that I realized it was real.

Also, this time around he's lucky in that he can actually hit the "refly" button, only that button is in the form of dollars, lots of them.

"They" was me and two Department of Transportation guys that were working on the lights.

Since the whole plane weighs less than 500 pounds and the prop was horizontal, I walked the tail up into the air and we just flipped her over after grabbing the leading edge of the top wing. With the grass and the spongy ground there wasn't any problem for the prop or hub.

I grabbed a spare wheel from the hangar, replaced the taco, and we pulled her to the hangar behind one of those industrial golf cart thingies.

Because it's all so minor and there was no injury, no reports were made.

Aviation in the USA is very, very different than in Europe.

I'm going out to the airport tonight to take the prop and wings off and make a shopping list.

I figure that I can get her back in the air for under a grand. This is where being the official Repairman saves a crapton of money.

Damn Dart, I'll add another "glad you're ok!"

I also hope that's the engine is good to go, and your repair costs are relatively low.

And the wall mounted prop collection starts...

Good to see you got the crash testing phase completed. One more check off the list.

Glad it wasn't worse. Did you get "The Look" from your wife?

Jesus Christ you are one lucky guy. Glad you walked away from that one with just a sore neck. Can you think of any reason why the brakes locked up at such a slow roll?

Also happy you walked away from it, Dart.

On a related note, the "Yikes, my eyes" forum spoiler tag has never been more appropriate!

There are a lot of theories on why the brakes locked up, the most popular being that the brakes moved with the extra weight on the bungees (the brake assembly rotates with them), causing minor friction. With slow taxi and a final braking they heated up, and when I accelerated they heated up even more and everything expanded to a tight fit. The way the bands go around the drum, they grab more at higher speeds.

I like the minor theory that I was grabbing the brake handle as well as the stick and unintentionally applying them. It's one of my pre-takeoff checks to ensure I'm not doing that, but it has a certain YouDumbAss appeal to it.

At any rate, I'm going to come up with a better brake system.

Wife didn't give me the long face; almost nothing I do surprises her. Indeed, when I ordered the Minor Surgery Kit for the suture needles and clamps she said it was probably a good idea, as she got a little anxious the time I heated and curled a regular sewing needle to take care of a cut I put on my thigh. I did a good job - one has to really look for the scar!

Saturday I've got a fellow EAA guy that's going to be out at the airfield doing final checks on his plane to help me pull the wings off. All my documentation is in the hangar, or I'd already ordered the new prop.

Glad you are ok Dart, and that the aircraft will soon be too.

The brakes binding on like that reminds me of an incident with a friend's bike, an XJ750, it had a remote master cylinder operated by a cable from the brake lever.

Anyway I had borrowed the bike to go off to a caving club meeting in the wilds of west coast Scotland, all was well until I went home when I got a few miles from where I had been staying it was taking more and more throttle to maintain speed, I stopped and looked over the bike fearing I was on the verge of seizing the engine but all was ok and the engine was free.

So off I rode again and all was well for a couple of miles and then it started happening again needing more throttle to keep moving, I was almost on full throttle and when I shut off the throttle and pulled in the clutch the bike screamed to a halt...

Ah hah! brakes - someone had adjusted the brake cable up until the brakes were just on and no more so as you rode and applied the brakes they heated up and got tighter and tighter until ...

I would love to find out who did it as it could have been disastrous especially if the disk had split or cracked under the heat and load.

Never went back to that caving club.

What a nasty, dangerous prank!

Freaked me out that someone could do such a thing, I could think of two guys there that could have done it and one of them was a police sergeant.

That the club president did not take it seriously was the breaking point for me and I severed any ties to them at that point. Still love to go exploring caves tho

Not to derail the thread, but I had an '82 XJ750J ... fun little bike, but it could have used a 6th gear for highway travel.

Dart,
So, heat expansion caused the brakes to lock and endo the airframe? Are the brakes cable or hydraulic?

Hydraulic must have the return orifice open when the lever is in the released position. I have had more then one bike brought to me for brake repair because the owner had no free play between the lever and the master cylinder's piston. Some were corrosion not letting the lever return all the way and others were the owner wanting a 'harder' feel to the lever.

If it is cable, you also need a minimum free play in brakes and clutch to allow for heat expansion. On a side note, most older utility ATVs have drum brakes. There are a variety of drum sizes and, as Alicatt mentions, you can use cable remote master cylinders. XJ750 was the hot Yam when I enter the working life, but new guys never get to touch the hot stuff.

Back to cables. I spent an hour an half yesterday replacing a brake cable and lubricating the cam for the rear brakes on a 92 Yamaha 250 Timberwolf. I kept adjusting the hand and foot cables until they felt solid, but the brake was obviously dragging. In the end I had to elevate the rear axle and adjust the cables by feeling the drag on the drum. The brake shoes are well worn to the drum. I verified the placement of the wear indicator with the brake cam and visually inspected the shoes and drum. The wear indicator is only half through the usable range. If they were new shoes, I would expect this 'spongy feel' until the shoes wear in.

Edit:
At the start of the repair, I moved the cam arm one spline. This is an old trick to get the maximum life from brake shoes and worn cables. Most brake shoe cams will not allow the pads to wear to the point of metal to metal contact. When I tried the trick this time, the brakes would drag unless I added some return pressure to the cam.

In the end, the levers feel soft but the machine stops properly. The moral of the story is to not let lever 'feel' fool you.

Edit:
Some brake shoes do have a trailing and leading edge. If you install these types reversed it will cause problems. I learned this on a friends 70's Cadillac. Most manufactures eliminate this by not making the shoes look symmetrical.

Edited for emphasis! Good advice right there Brit44. Please keep this in mind Dart. I have even seen banded brakes with a front and rear.