I don't know whether to call this a tip, a warning, ...or if it is jst to give everyone a good morning laugh, but here goes...
The last few days I've been doing the aerobatic portion of my test program on the -8. Loops, Rools, Split S's, - all the fun stuff. I realized I hadn't done any spinning yet, and kind of chided myself - I usually want to know the spin characteristics before the other things, in case of a blown manuever.
Anyway, I put some spins on my test card for yesterday, sneaking up on them with some slow flight and stalls. I had read everything in the flight testing section of the assembly manual on spinning the RV's, and was ready for anything, but expecting nothing extraordinary. Pulled it up into a stall, kicked left rudder, and she shuddered a bit, fell off as expected, and the nose sliced down about 30 degrees past vertical. At that moment, I got a little negative G, I heard a big "Bang" behind me, there was a moment of chaos and lots of dirt flying around, and I figured immediate recovery was in order. I never let the spin develop beyond a half turn, and she popped right out, with no difficulty on the pull-out...
Immediately concerned about the "Bang", I checked my mirrors to make sure the tail was firmly attached - nothing appeared out of place, and the airplane flew fine. OK Paul - catch your breath....and then begin laughing! You see, I am carrying about 80 lbs of ballast in the aft baggage compartment to bring my CG to about mid-range - she is really on the forward line with just me and full fuel. My ballast? Two 40 lb bags of readymix concrete! It's been in there since the first flight, and I really haven't thought about it - I've added more or less ballast to the rear seat during CG range testing, and strapped that down with the harness, but on this flight, I just had my "normal" ballast...
Well folks, there aren't any baggage tie-downs inside the rear bin, so when I unloaded in the spin entry, those two bags decided to vist the top of the baggage compartment. One of them hit an edge, or maybe the shoulder harness bolt, and tore a hole in itself - releasing that fine gray concrete dust! Fortunately, no damage was done to the airframe, and the ShopVac cleaned up the residue post-flight. I think for future Acro testing, all ballast will be strapped down in the rear seat - lesson learned!
Paul
The last few days I've been doing the aerobatic portion of my test program on the -8. Loops, Rools, Split S's, - all the fun stuff. I realized I hadn't done any spinning yet, and kind of chided myself - I usually want to know the spin characteristics before the other things, in case of a blown manuever.
Anyway, I put some spins on my test card for yesterday, sneaking up on them with some slow flight and stalls. I had read everything in the flight testing section of the assembly manual on spinning the RV's, and was ready for anything, but expecting nothing extraordinary. Pulled it up into a stall, kicked left rudder, and she shuddered a bit, fell off as expected, and the nose sliced down about 30 degrees past vertical. At that moment, I got a little negative G, I heard a big "Bang" behind me, there was a moment of chaos and lots of dirt flying around, and I figured immediate recovery was in order. I never let the spin develop beyond a half turn, and she popped right out, with no difficulty on the pull-out...
Immediately concerned about the "Bang", I checked my mirrors to make sure the tail was firmly attached - nothing appeared out of place, and the airplane flew fine. OK Paul - catch your breath....and then begin laughing! You see, I am carrying about 80 lbs of ballast in the aft baggage compartment to bring my CG to about mid-range - she is really on the forward line with just me and full fuel. My ballast? Two 40 lb bags of readymix concrete! It's been in there since the first flight, and I really haven't thought about it - I've added more or less ballast to the rear seat during CG range testing, and strapped that down with the harness, but on this flight, I just had my "normal" ballast...
Well folks, there aren't any baggage tie-downs inside the rear bin, so when I unloaded in the spin entry, those two bags decided to vist the top of the baggage compartment. One of them hit an edge, or maybe the shoulder harness bolt, and tore a hole in itself - releasing that fine gray concrete dust! Fortunately, no damage was done to the airframe, and the ShopVac cleaned up the residue post-flight. I think for future Acro testing, all ballast will be strapped down in the rear seat - lesson learned!
Paul
