I had posted this elsewhere on the forum, but it has been suggested that I share in Community Hall.

——————————


I’ll keep this short.


Life is full of these damned shame events.

We just lost a pilot at my field. Helicopter pilot. Sketchy details around it. Helo had battery power problem. They hooked up an APU (auxillery power unit) and got it running. The pilot brought the blades up past idle speed and got out of the helo to unplug the APU. Left the unrated passenger (a fixed wing flight instructor friend, not my close friend that I speak of) inside. The helo got unstable and did a bit of a wobble causing the blades to flex and decapitate Sal , the pilot. I saw Sal a few times a month at lunch. They don’t know why it happened. Whether his getting out reduced enough weight that the hello became near lift weight or whether the unrated rightseater did something. Mistake. Pilot never gets out of running aircraft unless another rated pilot has taken control. Even then Pilot in Command should have rightseater get out. Maybe he felt the other didn’t know how the APU hookup worked. Should have gone to idle neutral. Maybe was thinking that reducing power might have reduced the electrical charging. It was ugly. Pilot decapitated and head thrown into hangar. A damned shame event.


My aircraft had a minor issue. The tach started jumping about 75 RPM. Wasn’t steady as usual. My mechanic buddy and I pulled the cable and found the key that engaged the gearteeth was worn after 50 years of flying. Ordered new cable. So I flew with a friend on a small group flight for lunch at another field. We were in the air about 5 minutes when the engine got rough and dropped about 350 RPM. Did a quick switch of the magnetos with no difference. Checked fuel selection. Tried carb heat with no difference. We decided to return to field and called tower. I did radio work while he flew the plane. Kept announcing to each other forced landing procedures and checklist and picking locations if we couldn’t make the field. Made it back and did straight approach to runway with a not fancy landing. When our mechanic buddy looked at he found an exhaust valve spring broken and wound up pulling the cylinder and piston. Much worse than we initially though. Spring broke because exhaust valve stuck open. That was the cause of the broken spring. Burned the valve which came apart and was beaten around in cylinder and chewed up the piston face before the now small pieces went out the exhaust port. Chances were as good as not that it could have seized the engine. We were on the lucky side of it didn’t.

My new tach cable came in and we installed today. Good test flight of it.

New cylinder, piston, valves, pushrods, springs, keepers, plugs, etc done on buddies plane. Check of oil filter and drained oil found nothing bad. Borescope of the crank and other cylinders found nothing bad. So he test flew it with good results.

So I have had an eventful week at the airfield.

—————

Today we are flying three planes down to Sebring to attend the Light Sport Symposium.

What a horrible accident. It's not a cliche to say that safety always comes first.

And of course I'm glad you are ok OG.

It’s always a shame when someone is injured or loses their life over trying to save a little time. Like you said, send the unrated guy out to unhook. Call a ramp rat to do it if there’s an FBO.

Crap, that sounds like a bad week. Sorry to hear OG, but glad you made that flight back safely.

Man...

Very sorry about your friend.

Glad you have your bird sorted. Should be a nice day for a hop to Sebring, nice thick air.

Wow that sucks! Sorry you had to see that.

That's horrible.

I'm glad Lady Luck was (sort of) with you.

Sorry about your friend and glad that you are OK.

Dang. Did you actually see the helicopter accident?

As for your issue, small and fairly inexpensive ones are good. Stuck valve is bad! Glad that was not on your plane. How many hours does your engine have since overhaul?

I've seen two decapitations in the same accident and that was two too many, I'm sorry about your friend. One hopes that he didn't know what happened.

Sorry for your loss OG.

Yikes, Sorry to hear about your friend OG, and glad to hear that you made it home safely.

OG that is terrible, we too often get complacent. I have rarely gotten off my mower with the blades engaged, and as I get unsteady lately I adhere to that precaution even more.

I didn’t see the helicopter accident. Just the ugly aftermath.

semmern, I have 614 SMOH. So I’ve still got a lot of flying hours on it. Fortunately when I bought it it had just come out of a major refurbishment of avionics, autopilot, and recent overhaul. All top notch work. She’s a great plane.

Flight to Sebring was great. In pattern you could see cars doing club racing on the Sebring track. Much of the Sebring racetrack uses the old abandoned runway. Interesting seeing a large number of the Light Sport aircraft. Light Sport is an attempt to get more people flying. Lesser license requirements. Problem is they are newly constructed aircraft so the prices are up around $150,000 which is twice or more than the price of a nice used Cessna 172 or Piper. The small production numbers will mean that used Light Sports will slow coming to the used market. Some of them are pretty appealing; nice looking, good performance, good fuel burn, and up to date avionics. I wish them good fortune.

Tomorrow the wife and I are flying to Palatka J28 for a vintage aircraft and car show. A couple friends are planning on going so we’ll have three planes.

Having flown fairly recently in OG's Cardinal, I can tell you the aircraft is in Top Notch condition. If you didn't know that it's an older aircraft you would not believe it's age.




Wave when you fly by.

Good flight today. Fun event.

On the way flew over the private airfield where John Travolta lives. Jumbolair.





His house is the one in the center with the more black asphalt. Neither of his jets were there.






This was the event.




Avenger was there.



You don’t realize what a huge plane it is until you stand by it. I was surprised that for such a big heavy airplane landing on a carrier that its landing gear strut had such short absorption travel.






They had a historic WW2 US paratroop re-enactment group. C47 and correct uniforms.




I have video but no pictures of the jump. Tactical with static lines.

But I have pictures taken by my wife as we were taxiing out for departure and the C47 was landing.












It was a good day. Nice fligh there and back. Enough air traffic to worry the wife but nowhere like I get flying into Sun n Fun. Plenty of vintage and warbirds. Some OK cars.

It’s not all death and near crashes.

Condolences for the loss of a friend.

[Callously switching gears]

Good to hear you plane was sorted out and back up in the air!

Bit chilly up in Birmingham lately old chap?

Thanks for sharing all this OG. It blessed me scrolling through and seeing Tico Belle. I love that plane. I love the Tico Airshow where she headlines. Back around 2003-4 I needed some volunteer work hours for school and got to spend a couple of days volunteering there at Tico at the Valiant Air Command. I felt like a fish out of water but was immediately embraced by a really cool, elder gentleman who took it upon himself to include me into the fold of what they are about over there and he got me busy with some tasks. A really great guy and I only saw him those two days. I believe it was on the second day that I got teamed up with an elderly gentleman who was a retired policeman from up north volunteering and his name was James Bond. He had me help him install some windows onto the C-47 Tico Belle. Parked next to the Tico Belle was a DC-3 they were using for parts. The Tico Belle is one of those aircraft with a significant history having been through D-Day and the Berlin Airlift among other things. I felt privileged getting to touch and sit inside of history like that. My two days of basic and simple tasks amounts to nothing compared to what those professionals who volunteer their life's blood do at the VAC but those two days felt so good. There are some really special people who operate these aircraft museums and restorations and make it happen.

Since Tico Belle was there I'm assuming that Avenger is theirs too. Maybe not though I'm not sure. Around the time of my minuscule volunteer work there they had only recently gotten a hold of an Avenger. Over the years they have been restoring it and its only recently become airworthy I believe. I have pictures from years ago where it was setup on static somewhat fixed up cosmetically and with paint with myself, sister and her husband sitting in it. I love those Grumman cats and you're not kidding OG. The Avenger and even things like the F-8 Bearcat are huge! The Avenger is kind of special to me also because my grandfather was assigned to them Stateside at the end of the war as a radioman and gunner. If you ever get a chance OG the Tico Airshow is a really special one. Its amazing what they do every year.

Those are some great pics but I am very sad to hear that you lost a friend to such a tragic accident.