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RV horizontal stab crack reporting thread

Alignment

While there are no doubt a multitude of factors involved here ,I have to believe that alignment of the elevator hinge brackets does factor into this a great deal .....
 
RV-8
Built in 2002 (I am not the builder)
1300 hours
Limited light acro
Shop heads forward
Prop not balanced
(1) crack at the lower most outboard rivet on the LH side

Wondering if there is any correlation between aircraft experiencing these cracks and those that experienced the spar crack as documented in SB 14-01-31? My plane experienced that crack as well.
 
One more data point:

RV-8 / 2400 hours / competitive aerobatics flown by original owner / builder.

Cracks present on both sides that require complete spar replacement.
 
Spar Insp.

RV-8
525 hrs. (Builder & Only Pilot)
Some Acro (no negative stuff)
Prop Balanced - 3 blade MT
Factory heads Forward
Some grass field ops.

NO CRACKS.
 
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2005 RV7 Standard Build Kit. Finished 2012 320 tach hours/427 Hobbs hours.
Shop heads on forward side of spar web. Light acro on occasion. Prop balanced, No cracks.
 
125... 126... 127 data points so far

wnplt submitted the 125th data point. And now there are 127. I see a couple of new responses on the Google form.

Based on private messages, there are a couple of us who feel nosewheel airplanes may be under-represented in the responses. So if you have inspected a nosedragger but haven't reported the results yet, please do so.

And please, please use the Google form at this link to enter your response. It saves me some typing and probably spares this exercise from some data entry errors. Please send your response either to this thread or the Google form, but not both. That will spare us all from some duplicate entries in the table, which will skew the results.

Thanks in advance.

One more comment. If you are flying an RV, other than a 9(A), 10, or 12(xx), I imagine you're probably trying out some aerobatics. I haven't been collecting data on that, and I don't want to go back through 125+ entries to collect it, especially because the level of aerobatics you may report is somewhat... subjective.
 
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Note - It was not obvious to me, so I asked Vans. The repair kit contains parts for *both* sides of the stabilizer. 1 kit per aircraft.
 
...

One more comment. If you are flying an RV, other than a 9(A), 10, or 12(xx), I imagine you're probably trying out some aerobatics. I haven't been collecting data on that, and I don't want to go back through 125+ entries to collect it, especially because the level of aerobatics you may report is somewhat... subjective.

I suspect that from a fatigue standpoint, which the mothership has more than suggested is the likely issue, that aerobatics is far less significant than, say, whether you operate from dirt, or grass, (or the Reno-Stead KRTS taxiways...just kidding) with a tail dragger. The other potential fatigue drivers would be prop vibration, as originally noted by Greg Hughes, and regular, frequent, moderate turbulence at high speeds.

My speculation, hunch, instinct, is that the preponderance of cracks are going to appear on tail draggers. Years ago, I owned a PIK-20D sailplane that had an AD to inspect and repair the lower rudder hinge bracket. Guess what the cause was? Trailering the glider. There is a significant amount of lead counterweight on the leading edge of the rudder, and road vibrations felt in the trailer produced a vertical cyclic load on the lower hinge from the rudder. (the upper hinge had a floating hinge pintle so it didn't share the load).

We are talking multiple thousands of load cycles applied to the hinge bracket. Not likely that even a thousand loops would do it. How many loops have you done?
 
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I suspect that from a fatigue standpoint, which the mothership has more than suggested is the likely issue, that aerobatics is far less significant than, say, whether you operate from dirt, or grass, (or the Reno-Stead KRTS taxiways...just kidding) with a tail dragger. The other potential fatigue drivers would be prop vibration, as originally noted by Greg Hughes, and regular, frequent, moderate turbulence at high speeds.

My speculation, hunch, instinct, is that the preponderance of cracks are going to appear on tail draggers. Years ago, I owned a PIK-20D sailplane that had an AD to inspect and repair the lower rudder hinge bracket. Guess what the cause was? Trailering the glider. There is a significant amount of lead counterweight on the leading edge of the rudder, and road vibrations felt in the trailer produced a vertical cyclic load on the lower hinge from the rudder. (the upper hinge had a floating hinge pintle so it didn't share the load).

We are talking multiple thousands of load cycles applied to the hinge bracket. Not likely that even a thousand loops would do it. How many loops have you done?

Steve,

I’m probably way off base here, and glad there are folks like you Way smarter than me trying to figure this out. My question is what about planes that have parked out in strong tailwinds (like Oshkosh last year) and what type of gust locks they had for the elevator. Could that be a factor at all? I know a Lot of attention was given to Rudders after that event.
 
Cracks?

My RV-9A was a OSH during the BIG WIND this year and the previous one (2019?) 570 hours, no cracks found. A 9A 50 feet away had the rudder bent and cracked when the lock failed.
Ed
 
What he said.

The other potential fatigue drivers would be prop vibration, as originally noted by Greg Hughes, and regular, frequent, moderate turbulence at high speeds.

Here's a shameless plug for the EAA Chapter Tool Crib Program. One of the items your chapter can purchase is a prop balancing tool.

My speculation, hunch, instinct, is that the preponderance of cracks are going to appear on tail draggers.

The data, although still somewhat sparse, supports this hypothesis, errr, hunch.
 
Steve,

I’m probably way off base here, and glad there are folks like you Way smarter than me trying to figure this out. My question is what about planes that have parked out in strong tailwinds (like Oshkosh last year) and what type of gust locks they had for the elevator. Could that be a factor at all? I know a Lot of attention was given to Rudders after that event.

Those kinds of exposures produce occasional high loads that are not likely to be damaging for most of the structure. What we are most likely seeing here is fatigue, either what is called "high cycle fatigue" or "low-cycle fatigue".

High-cycle fatigue would be from something like prop vibration that just happened to be at a frequency that caused the elevators or stabilizer to vibrate too. This would accumulate millions of cycles of very small load exposure.
Low-cycle fatigue would be from habitual operations of a tail dragger on gravel, grass, dirt, or hinge misalignment where hundreds and hundreds of cycles of moderate load exposure would occur. The most damaging load exposure for fatigue is where the loads are reversing during each cycle, meaning up-down-up-down, or in-out-in-out.

A few hard bangs against control stops may bend something, but not likely to cause cracks.
 
Table updates may stall tomorrow

Here's an announcement from my local airport:

"Due to the extreme weather forecast with high winds the airport plans to close all ramp and hangar areas from approximately Wednesday noon to Saturday 6 PM. Entry Gates will be closed and all ramps shut down to prevent hangar and aircraft damage and personal injury. Hangar doors must remain closed and locked to prevent damage."

Steady winds are expected to peak at about 50 mph with gusts to about 80 mph at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning. (So they're closing things down at noon on Wednesday???) We'll see how the utilities hold up. I may not be able to update the table for a while.

And please use the form to send your inspection report.
 
I'd be curios to hear the results of this inspection from our pilots who fly the airshow circuit to see how their aircraft are fairing??
 
Tail updates

RV6A, N222KL, 700 Hours, Catto FP, No Acro, No Cracks. Slow Build, Mfg heads fwd
RV7A N117TA, 350 hours, Hartzell CS, No Acro , No Cracks. Quick Build, Mfg heads aft
 
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Just inspected the RV-3 (the RV-6 and RV-8 were previously reported with no cracks) and found no cracks, manufactured heads on front (inside) of spar. 804 hours with lots of Acro, but very little unpaved runway time.
 
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No cracks

RV-7A IO-360 CS prop no acro no cracks 100 hours total time (July 2021 first flight) all flights from paved runways

Keith Turner
 
No cracks

RV-7A - 500h - 180 hp - FP - No acro - Manufactured head front - No cracks
RV7 - 500h - 160 hp - FP - No acro - Manufactured head front - No cracks
RV8 - 500h - 160 hp - FP - No acro - Manufactured head front - No cracks
 
Crack

2004 rv8, 950 hrs. Non builder, little aerobatics, occasional grass strips, one crack, right side outer bracket, upper inboard rivet.
 
2001 RV4 328 hours total time

Mild aerobatics, semi rough field

Not sure about rivet direction, the bucked portion is inside the horizontal

5 rivets per bracket

No cracks found
 
2008 RV7
990 hours
Shop heads aft
Occasional gentleman acro up to 3.5 ish G's (mostly aileron rolls and loops)
Occasionally flown in light to moderate mountain turbulence
Dynamically balanced CS Hartsell - Parallel valve IO-360
No cracks
fingers crossed
 
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1380 hrs 32 years old, 600hrs past 5 years
6A
No acro
Manufactured head forward
No cracks
 
No cracks

RV 8 with 546 hours, shop head on forward side of spar, occasional aerobatics, IO 360 parallel valve and Catto prop not balanced until last 50 hours
 
I suspect that from a fatigue standpoint, which the mothership has more than suggested is the likely issue, that aerobatics is far less significant than, say, whether you operate from dirt, or grass, (or the Reno-Stead KRTS taxiways...just kidding) with a tail dragger. The other potential fatigue drivers would be prop vibration, as originally noted by Greg Hughes, and regular, frequent, moderate turbulence at high speeds.

My speculation, hunch, instinct, is that the preponderance of cracks are going to appear on tail draggers. Years ago, I owned a PIK-20D sailplane that had an AD to inspect and repair the lower rudder hinge bracket. Guess what the cause was? Trailering the glider. There is a significant amount of lead counterweight on the leading edge of the rudder, and road vibrations felt in the trailer produced a vertical cyclic load on the lower hinge from the rudder. (the upper hinge had a floating hinge pintle so it didn't share the load).

We are talking multiple thousands of load cycles applied to the hinge bracket. Not likely that even a thousand loops would do it. How many loops have you done?

Somebody (not me :)) should run a multivariate ANOVA on the data...
 
No Cracks

Boroscope on the move today. Inspected 3 RV7’s. No cracks found.

1- RV7A. 500tt. 180 hp fixed pitch. No acro. Shop heads aft.

2- RV7A. 1100tt. 200 hp C/S Hartzell. No acro. Shop heads fwd.

3- RV7. 500tt. 180 hp C/S Hartzell. Limited acro. Shop heads fwd.

Don Broussard
RV9 Rebuild in Progress
57 Pacer
 
RV9 875TT airframe since 2008
VFR , NO Aero , FP 160 HP 0320
Factory heads found fwd side spar
No cracks found fwd or aft side spar at bracket
Have no indications at bracket, looks like new .
Easy inspection since the outboard rib has its 3 lightening holes open..
 
Cracks

RV-4
160 hp, fixed pitch wooden prop
shop head forward
2.500 hours - lots!! of aerobatics, also competition aerobatics; half of the landings were on a rough gras strip.
several cracks - 2 on the right side, 4 on the left side
 
RV-4: SB00036 inspection

RV-4
No Cracks
Shop heads FWD
5th rivet for each bracket

Approx 780TT
Very limited aerobatics
100% Paved Surfaces
3-Blade Catto
Landoll Harmonic Balancer

__________________
Derrick L. Aubuchon
RV4 (Flying)
Fort Myers (FL59), FL
[email protected]

(2023 dues paid)
 
No cracks

No cracks
RV-7A
465 hours
Shop heads forward
180HP
Hartzell CS
Very light acro
 
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