Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

[ricky]

Re: Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

Happy New Year everyone,anyone thought of makeing service manual,for all
area of the plane,wing,tail,elevator,fuseledge,engine,landing section,like piper/cessana has

[ricky]

Re: Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

Also pilot opperation manual, weight balance,performance chart,like cessna has.
Rick

[jstall]

Re: Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

f you are worried about other damage you need to look at everything in the load paths. I would start with the wheel beads (in case the tire pushed down enough for something to hit the bead and crack or deform it). While the tires are off you can pull the brake and check if you have a need for new surfaces but the big thing is to look for cracks or nicks in the radius between the axel and brake flange. Look all the way around, sometimes landing loads are bigger on the rebound than the initial hit. Next I would look at the welds on the backside where the brace tube comes down to the cluster. While you are at it check the brace for wall thickness, they rust from the inside. Next is the lower longeron to gear leg attach and the upper cluster at the bungees. Don't forget to look at the bungee area in the fuselage. When those bungees slammed the gear back up that area took a big hit. I would bet the bumpers between the fuse and gear apex were crushed. You can make nice new ones from axe handle protectors (got drawings around here somewhere). Next is take a good look at the cord that secures the seat sling and the sling itself. They would have taken a hit too and if there was any "human waste" involved it will rot the canvas and cord pretty fast (plus your interior will smell "funny") ;-)
Last, I would take a close look at the tail wheel instl. for cracks, damage, rudder bottom strikes, longeron damage and make sure your springs are in the correct order. If the springs are stacked wrong the secondary impact of the tail will have partially sheared the bolt at the front or rear and your tail wheel will fall off. Another big one is make sure the bushing is in place in the fuselage where the front bolt goes in. LOTS of planes have them missing and it allows the tail spring to rock back and forth under load.
Got you nervous yet, well, you asked. I spent the first ten years of my engineering career working as a Navy Landing gear repair specialist. Lots of crash, accident and incident investigation time. The list of items I gave you is what I check on my planes gear at every annual.
Hank (but I'm anal) J




That was Vic that taxied into the pond and I was painting (unless you were painting too Vic).
Thought of a couple of other things to check after a hard landing. Look at the shaft on your control wheel. In an "arrival" you would be amazed at the down load you can put on the wheel and the shaft can get curved down. Same for the throttle shaft. I did a crash investigation where the steel tube stick was bent back and the grip was torn off (it was still in the pilots hand, unfortunately the hand wasn't still on his arm). The crash loads would have bent the stick FORWARD; the PILOT bent it aft prior to impact. I have seen rudder pedals bent too, but I doubt you would have been trying to push them at the time. Might want to give the wings a bit of a look over too. The down load would have put the struts in compression and there could be some internal wing damage.
Remember these things are assuming a worst case. Don't panic, just be thorough.
Hank J



here are two more post i was unsure if they were added. I am always looking through old post for info and ran across mor of hanks wisdom. I know we all look in the area during annual but do we actually inspect these things with out them on the list.

Hard landings? How hard is hard? Hard enough to produce a significant bounce, or "BOOM", ?? any ideas?

JS

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

A hard landing is actually defined by how many "Gs" the plane experiences on landing but our rear ends are really BAD "G" sensors (especially if they are munching on a seat cushion).
If a bungee bottoms to the safety cable or a wing tip touches, that would for sure be a hard landing. personally I do a visual hard landing inspection after any "arrival" and have done many. I have never seen any damage, but I am very conservative. If you run over something and it feels like a pot hole does in your car, I would inspect. It's CHEAP INSURANCE and you can do it in the hangar so no one sees that you knew "that was a ROUGH one" too.
Hank

Yes, I look at my tires and wheels on my car after bad pot holes too. On one of THOSE inspections I did see broken belts in the tire and had to replace it.

[Len Petterson]

Re: Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

There has been many good sugestion for the inspection manual. Have anyone but them togther into someting like draft format?
Len

[Robert Lees]

Re: Taylorcraft Inspection Manual proposal

I think this thread has run its course, so I'm unsticking it UFN.

It was a good idea at the time, but it needs a sponsor not forthcoming at this date.


Rob

[Fang]

Re: Annual Inspection Manual proposal

Has this thread died? What's the latest on an inspection manual?

[Fang]

Re: Annual Inspection Manual proposal

"Nevermind" Just having read/found the above post. How hard can it be to produce a set of inspection "call-out" cards for this simple little airplane? I nominate Mike Rice to take the lead on this. Go Mike!