Dixie down

[TOMS]

Too bad:

[Dart]

Caught a fence post on short final...man, that's terrible!

Looks like a lot of work to get her back, but nothing insurmountable. Pilot walked away with nothing more than bruised pride, so it's a win if one thinks about it.

[Bulldogbuilder]

I have watched the film clip a number of times. There is an obvious application of power near the the last 50-100 feet. The pilot managed to land on top of the one (concrete ?) fence post. Bet he could not do that again even for a million quid.

Was the power application stopped short (engine failure?), or was his visibility blocked by the middle wing, fuselage, or did he cut it too close?

The top wing has to be totally rebuilt, it looks as if the entire leading edge is bent, and the struts will also have to be closely inspected at the forward attach to the spar. it will not be a simple or quick fix as mentioned by the announcer. Besides the pilot's ego being crushed (glad to see you walking) the cost will be the difficult part. (Engine rebuild, prop, landing gear, wheels, UGH!!)

Ed

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Bulldogbuilder

I have watched the film clip a number of times. There is an obvious application of power near the the last 50-100 feet. The pilot managed to land on top of the one (concrete ?) fence post. Bet he could not do that again even for a million quid.

Was the power application stopped short (engine failure?), or was his visibility blocked by the middle wing, fuselage, or did he cut it too close?

The top wing has to be totally rebuilt, it looks as if the entire leading edge is bent, and the struts will also have to be closely inspected at the forward attach to the spar. it will not be a simple or quick fix as mentioned by the announcer. Besides the pilot's ego being crushed (glad to see you walking) the cost will be the difficult part. (Engine rebuild, prop, landing gear, wheels, UGH!!)

Ed

Actually they had better strip and inspect ALL of the wings. It could have cracked a spar.

[piecost]

Very unfortunate, but I am glad that the pilot is ok.

What is the process for inspecting wooden structures? Is is limited to visually inspecting for splits/cracks?

[Bulldogbuilder]

The process of inspecting an aircraft after an accident will depend a lot on the owners and classification that the aircraft is in. (Re: experimental, other, CAA, FAA, country of accident etc) Also damage and death.
In this case, Shuttleworth being the first rate organization it is, will do a superb job of inspecting. Brad adds to the earlier comment I made of the damage and cost. You might be surprised what damage can occur in the most unlikely places. So the question would be, how much do we tear off in order to see as much as we can without stripping the entire aeroplane. (Covering an aeroplane is very very expensive).
So rest assured that the Shuttleworth gang will view from the nose to the tail wheel with an eagle eye. There is a reason that accident investigations take months to evolve.

Ed

[Dangerous Dave]

I was right beside the touchdown point and from my vantage point it sounded like a power failure on downwind and he turned towards the runway at an angle. He put in a lot of slip and held it long as he was high and needed to get down ( I was concerned with the rate of descent and how long he held it -my Camel wouldn't like that and I was worried he'd have a time stopping the descent) as he rounded out it did level off but caught the fence. The engine did seem to catch or sputter and there was an obvious exhaust trail. Didn't appear to be any power from my pov.
If the fence was not there he's have made it and have been a hero. No way for him to see the fence and he was commited to the approach to get it back on the runway from his position when it lost power. I think he did a great job.
I've been there ,and it's not easy.
Pilot ok and plane can be fixed. If it was easy -everyone would fly em.