Weedhopper 28AAD update

It turned out yesterday that getting 28AAD off the trailer wasn’t as difficult as I thought so I did it by myself without waiting for Wim. That gave me the whole day to get everything off and out of the Kia and stowed away safely in my atelier and all that I’ll now need to do is get a waterproof sheet to cover the fuselage to protect it from the weather and I’ll be able to keep it until I have the time to start on the repair work. After all, I can’t afford to lose sight of the fact that finishing off my new tool store is the main priority at the moment.

Here are a couple of shots that I took after I’d got it off the trailer.

So now I could have a good look at the damage that it had sustained. First off were the trailing links on both sides. Both had snapped showing just how hard the landing had been. Chris said that he’d lost power in the approach just before the flare at about 80 kmh and had dropped onto the runway and that although he himself is fairly slightly built, one of the problems was that he was carrying a very heavy passenger!

Apart from some deformation of the pod, hopefully just creasing which should come out again once the strain has been released, and the undercarriage collapsed backwards, there was little else to see from outside, so it was then time to open the doors and look inside. The doors don’t come anywhere near to fitting as it’s obvious that the cabin floor has risen slightly causing the screen to push downwards and the pod sides to compress. This has thrown everything out of position and it was soon easy to see why.

When both of the trailing links snapped, it was natural for the main undercarriage assembly which more or less hangs down on big rubber bushes and is located in position by the trailing links, to pivot violently backwards on its mounting bolts on both sides. This in turn put a huge strain on the ends of the two tubes that form the sides of the cabin and that use the same mounting points, causing them to also snap, as shown by the following pics.

In fact, the second shot above shows that the tube on the passenger side was also displaced sideways after snapping. The pod is only attached solidly to the airframe by two bolts passing upwards through its underside that are secured to the floor tubes and its upper is attached to the bottom of the screen, which in turn is only supported by cable ties to the two tubes in question.

Without the support of those two tubes, the momentum of the accident then caused the pod to be forced upwards against the screen causing the pod deformation. The screen/pod structure is further supported inside the cabin by the instrument panel, which is attached by bolts that pass through all three units to provide rigidity. The foot of the panel upright is then attached to a cabin cross member by cable ties.

In an accident like this, those cable ties snap allowing the foot of the panel upright to move backwards and the panel itself to collapse downwards, as the following pictures, which are eerily reminiscent of ones that I once took of MYRO, quite clearly show.

So what does all of that show? Well, so long as the pod itself is not badly damaged, it looks like pretty good news. Because of the manner in which the cabin has deformed, it’s doubtful that there will be any damage to the lower tube structure, although even if there is, I should have any replacements that are necessary. It looks as though after removing the fuselage cover so I can get a good look and dismantling the screen and pod, all that will be necessary to effect the repair will be to make up two new trailing links (easy), relocate the main undercarriage and replace the two snapped cabin tubes.

It will then just be a matter of checking the structure thoroughly and reassembling. I have some 1.5mm Lexan in my atelier already so I’ll make a new screen as I’ve done twice for MYRO (I think MYRO’s is undamaged so may be usable). I’ll also need to get hold of some 1mm so I can make up some new doors which are structurally undamaged, but tatty. After all, if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well, isn’t it 😉