Failed strut attach fitting pictures

[Bruce]

Are there any pictures of the failed area of the strut attach fitting on the Oregon accident plane?

[dedrekon]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

I've got some pictures somewhere, but finding them could be problematic.....there's no question what caused the failure once you've seen the pictures. The fittings were VERY badly rusted. Apparently the fabric wrapped around them kept that hidden when inspecting the plane.

Vincent

[Dick Smith]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting picture

Strut attachment failure.

[flyguy]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

Guess we have all looked at that picture carefully and to me it is incredible how little shiny metal there is.

How many times that airplane must have taken off, flown, and landed with hardly any metal holding the strut on. Amazing.
Darryl

[Bruce]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

I still can`t believe the FAA looked at this and concluded (or were talked into it) that this was a strut failure! This could make one lose respect for the system that is trying to protect us!

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

The FAA didn't have the pictures when they made the decision. They had a plane in a lake, two dead people and a factory saying it was a strut failure (with a bunch of rusted struts to back themselves up). There was no way for the FAA folks to know at the time that the plane was a poorly maintained, hodge-poged together, "kinda" Taylorcraft, or that there was a hidden agenda at the factory. With what they had to work with, they actually made the right initial decision.
The problem was that when it became evident that there WAS a hidden agenda, and the crashed plane IN NO WAY represented the other planes in the population, they wouldn't stop and change directions with better information. That, unfortunately, is pretty common in governmental bureaucracies. Once the inertia is in place, it's almost impossible to stop or change direction.
We actually have some really good people at the FAA, especially at the Small Aircraft Directorate in Kansas City
Hank

[1938BF50]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

Very well put Hank.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

I still can`t believe the FAA looked at this and concluded (or were talked into it) that this was a strut failure! This could make one lose respect for the system that is trying to protect us!

In the interests of keeping facts in their right place, and with apologies for continuing the thread drift:

Timeline:
2 April 2007: the Factory issued its Service Bulletin 2007-001 regarding strut failures;
12 April 2007: the FAA issue ACS (Airworthiness Concern Sheet) regarding the above;
28 July 2007: the Wiley incident occurred, almost four months after the Factory issued the SB;
13 August 2007: The FAA strut AD (2007-16-14) was issued.

Rob

p.s. Didn't we flog this horse to death a few years ago?

[M Jones]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

p.s. Didn't we flog this horse to death a few years ago?

Is this the way you feel about it Rob?

[flyguy]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

It's a rather slow hot summer day here Rob, so here we go. Chuckle.

I never got the impression that the strut AD had anything to do with that accident and was just a result of the SB from good ole' Harry.

I thought the resulting AD on the fitting was entirely justified and actually not that big of a deal to implement.

As Bill Berle wrote so well here, the strut AD was done in the worst possible way and even though I am glad I have a new set of sealed struts on the plane it still aggravates me more than a little as to how we were jerked around on that one.
Darryl
PS: that's about it, Mike, LOL

[Robert Lees]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

Yes, Mike...I'm sure there's a definition in Wikipedia somewhere about necrophilia, but I'm too thrashed to look.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

Wouldn't that be Equiphilia?
Hank

[flyguy]

Re: Failed strut attach fitting pictures

Domestic abuse, animal, malicious, not to put too fine a point on it.
DC