FOKM on Glassy Water

[wrightdg]

On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[Mike Davis]

Sorry to hear about your accident Garry, but glad to hear that you're
alright and that FOKM will fly again. Good luck with your repairs.

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "wrightdg" <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
To: "rebel builders" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 3:01 PM
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net

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[Ken]

Sorry to hear this Garry but it is very good to hear that you are OK.
Metal can be repaired!
With at least two hardpoints (an engine mount and a float mount) kinked
in addition to the float damage, I think I'd consider trucking it home
since you have access to a road. You are going to be taking it apart
anyway. Kinked metal can crack pretty quickly and doesn't have a lot of
strength. Would it sit on a flatbed trailer without the wings?
Ken





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[Walter Klatt]

Ouch, very sorry to hear about that. But it certainly could have
been worse.

With glassy water, I am always very, very cautious, as I, too,
have been surprised more than once by it, but fortunately always
had the nose at the right attitude and my descent rate slow
enough to not do anything bad. It is always closer than you
think, that is for sure.

Probably the worst was on a trip up the coast a couple of years
ago, where we had some low fog that I was trying to duck under.
The ocean was glassy, and with the fog, you really could not tell
where the surface was. So when I had to get really low, I slowed
down, lowered some flap, and sure enough I touched surface more
than once when I wasn't expecting it. But all that happened is
that I bounced up and just gained a little more altitude and kept
flying. The key was having the nose in an up position as when
landing, and then it doesn't dig in if you touch.

I've also learned to combat that instinctive desire to get her
down when flying onto glassy water in a smaller lake, and you
start seeing the end of the lake coming up. I will hold her
patiently with the slow descent, and be prepared to go around if
I have to. You can never rush a glassy water landing, no matter
what.

Well, hope the damage isn't too bad, and you can get her flying
again soon. Was hoping to meet up with you some time for some
float flying in BC.

Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: mike.davis@dcsol.com
[mailto:mike.davis@dcsol.com]On Behalf Of
wrightdg
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 4:01 PM
To: rebel builders
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water


On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do
solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water
was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my
location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed
was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was
indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I
thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts
and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float
struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for
striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously
and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad
luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM
this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging
in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but
stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much
level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within
I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the
aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of
a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to
shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had
come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow
of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it
down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a
couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the
wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable
at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems
somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize
it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't
really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been
just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the
floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires
slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the
cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in
canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can
be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside
the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later.
These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which
some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such
were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching
the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor
kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point
visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was
bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the
bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material
contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised
the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will
probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it
on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off
a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there
while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to
members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to
respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as
the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the
accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's
work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[Bob Patterson]

WOW, Garry !!! You are one LUCKY guy !!!!!! There probably
isn't another airplane you could have done this in and still stay afloat !
And alive ! The Rebel really is an amazing airplane !

Really glad that it all worked out well ! A lot of metal work, but
that CAN be repaired ! I recall that the lower corner wraps on FOKM
were upgraded from FUS-10's (.020) to FUS-70's, (.025) when the floats
were first installed (at least, I'm sure the right one was ! ;-) )
Probably a good idea to replace all 4 front wraps with FUS-70's,
while it is apart.

I'm inclined to agree with Ken - a flatbed truck, and taking the
wings off is a pain, but not nearly as big a pain as having something
major fail in flight, or discovering that the kinks cause some very
unpleasant handling characteristics !

That original right lower FUS-10 had a small dent in it when I
bought FOKM - within about 20 hours, the dent turned into a 2"
long crack ! I flattened it, and added a large inside doubler over
a large area, and flew it out to have the whole wrap replaced,
and other work, including installing the float pump and gear,
and floats. Maybe - IF you can flatten the dent, and add a doubler,
and re-rivet the panel, you could fly it home ....
.....or maybe near to Arnold Forest, a possible repairman.....

Once you get her apart, have a real good look everywhere -
there may be more damage hidden inside ! (Something to consider
for the insurance ..... don't be too quick to settle on an amount
without knowing the extent of problems ...)

Because she's pretty tall on the floats, it is possible that the
bank angle was so steep that the right float was almost completely
under water, and that would put most of the pressure on the top
of the float ..... pretty amazing that it didn't break though !

Congratulations on surviving this one - keep smiling, and
we hope you get flying again soon ! :-)

.....bobp

-------------------------------orig.-------------------------
On Sunday 17 July 2005 07:01 pm, wrightdg wrote:

On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[Bruce Georgen]

Hi Garry,

Sorry to hear about your misshap. You must feel terrible about it. Glad to hear your OK, Though. I'm thinking I would truck it out if It was me. No sense in risking your life if there is another option.

Maybe you can take some pictures of the damage and later, if you feel better about it, post them to the list for the benefit of the group.

Better times ahead,

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: wrightdg <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
Sent: Jul 17, 2005 7:01 PM
To: rebel builders <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water

On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[N.Smith]

Hi Garry

Sorry to hear about your unexpected arrival, but lucky you certainly are.

If you can't road it out (definitely preferred option) and decide to fly,
I'd look at adding large thick doublers (.032 ?) around each crease area in
the FUS's (they'll need replacing anyway) and choose a calm day, pilot only,
minimum fuel (but don't make things worse by running out), and no baggage -
strip out all the weight you can before you set off.

Choose the closest destination that will allow repair before further flight.

I've used FUS-452's (I think that's the correct number - made from .032) on
my lower forward corner wraps, and FUS 70's (.025) elsewhere.

Make sure you photograph things to talk about in the bar later :-)

Nigel
745E


-----Original Message-----
From: mike.davis@dcsol.com [mailto:mike.davis@dcsol.com]On Behalf Of
wrightdg
Sent: 18 July 2005 00:01
To: rebel builders
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water


On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[wrightdg]

Thanks to all who have commented. It appears to be a pretty strong
consensus favoring trucking it out, and having slept on it I gratefully
accept the group's view. Murray - I will need to borrow those wing
cradles after all. Perhaps you can phone me on my cell at 560 5635 and
we can arrange a time when I can pick them up from your hangar. I will
proceed with disassembly today.

On Mon, 2005-18-07 at 09:29 +0100, N.Smith wrote:

Hi Garry

Sorry to hear about your unexpected arrival, but lucky you certainly are.

If you can't road it out (definitely preferred option) and decide to fly,
I'd look at adding large thick doublers (.032 ?) around each crease area in
the FUS's (they'll need replacing anyway) and choose a calm day, pilot only,
minimum fuel (but don't make things worse by running out), and no baggage -
strip out all the weight you can before you set off.

Choose the closest destination that will allow repair before further flight.

I've used FUS-452's (I think that's the correct number - made from .032) on
my lower forward corner wraps, and FUS 70's (.025) elsewhere.

Make sure you photograph things to talk about in the bar later :-)

Nigel
745E


-----Original Message-----
From: mike.davis@dcsol.com [mailto:mike.davis@dcsol.com]On Behalf Of
wrightdg
Sent: 18 July 2005 00:01
To: rebel builders
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water


On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[bscheube]

Glad to hear you came out of it ok.

Bob moose191


On 7/18/2005 5:18 AM, WRIGHTDG@DAVINCIBB.NET wrote to REBEL-BUILDERS:

-> Received: by dcsol.com (Wildcat! SMTP Router v6.1.451.4)
-> for rebel-builders@dcsol.com; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:18:26 -0800
-> Received: from h66-244-233-18.bigpipeinc.com ([66.244.233.18])
HELO=mail.davincibb.net
-> by dcsol.com (Wildcat! SMTP v6.1.451.4) with SMTP
-> id 307879859; Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:18:24 -0800
-> Received: (qmail 18944 invoked from network); 18 Jul 2005 13:18:22 -0000
-> Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.0.102?) (64.141.99.140)
-> by h66-244-233-18.bigpipeinc.com with SMTP; 18 Jul 2005 13:18:22 -0000
-> Subject: RE: FOKM on Glassy Water
-> From: wrightdg <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
-> Reply-To: wrightdg@davincibb.net
-> To: rebel builders <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
-> In-Reply-To: <HHEHLHIEHFPNHKEIHIIAEEDPDPAA.admin@airnig.co.uk>
-> References: <HHEHLHIEHFPNHKEIHIIAEEDPDPAA.admin@airnig.co.uk>
-> X-Orig-Content-Type: text/plain
-> Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 07:18:01 -0600
-> Message-Id: <1121692681.4653.52.camel@localhost.localdomain>
-> X-Orig-Mime-Version: 1.0
-> X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.4
-> X-Orig-Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
-> X-Virus-Assassin: Message filtered with wsAV v3.0.0 Build 001
->
-> Thanks to all who have commented. It appears to be a pretty strong
-> consensus favoring trucking it out, and having slept on it I gratefully
-> accept the group's view. Murray - I will need to borrow those wing
-> cradles after all. Perhaps you can phone me on my cell at 560 5635 and
-> we can arrange a time when I can pick them up from your hangar. I will
-> proceed with disassembly today.
->
-> On Mon, 2005-18-07 at 09:29 +0100, N.Smith wrote:
-> > Hi Garry
-> >
-> > Sorry to hear about your unexpected arrival, but lucky you certainly are.
-> >
-> > If you can't road it out (definitely preferred option) and decide to fly,
-> > I'd look at adding large thick doublers (.032 ?) around each crease area
in
-> > the FUS's (they'll need replacing anyway) and choose a calm day, pilot
only,
-> > minimum fuel (but don't make things worse by running out), and no
baggage -
-> > strip out all the weight you can before you set off.
-> >
-> > Choose the closest destination that will allow repair before further
flight.
-> >
-> > I've used FUS-452's (I think that's the correct number - made from .032)
on
-> > my lower forward corner wraps, and FUS 70's (.025) elsewhere.
-> >
-> > Make sure you photograph things to talk about in the bar later :-)
-> >
-> > Nigel
-> > 745E
-> >
-> >
-> > -----Original Message-----
-> > From: mike.davis@dcsol.com [mailto:mike.davis@dcsol.com]On Behalf Of
-> > wrightdg
-> > Sent: 18 July 2005 00:01
-> > To: rebel builders
-> > Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water
-> >
-> >
-> > On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
-> > goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
-> > descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
-> > was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
-> > than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
-> > decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
-> > between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
-> > still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.
-> >
-> > As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
-> > and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
-> > water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
-> > aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!
-> >
-> > In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
-> > immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
-> > aircraft capsizing to the right.
-> >
-> > Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
-> > floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
-> > violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
-> > 30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
-> > nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
-> > from Petro Canada.
-> >
-> > We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
-> > hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
-> > write-off potentially including self.
-> >
-> > Damages appear to be:
-> > 1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
-> > top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
-> > aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
-> > ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
-> > float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
-> > direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
-> > intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
-> > flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
-> > me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
-> > 2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
-> > out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
-> > damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
-> > 3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
-> > kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
-> > about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
-> > braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
-> > movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
-> > straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
-> > hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
-> > is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
-> > 4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
-> > post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
-> > bend corners at the top of the panel.
-> > 5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
-> > outside the plane and easily repaired.
-> > 6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
-> > inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
-> > the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
-> > staying upright.
-> >
-> > I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
-> > after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
-> > for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.
-> >
-> > On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
-> > consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
-> > out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
-> > this a bit.
-> >
-> > There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
-> > in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
-> > obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
-> > Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
-> > to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
-> > been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
-> > --
-> > Garry Wright
-> > R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
-> > 403 931 1573
-> > wrightdg@davincibb.net
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> > List archives located at: https://www.dcsol.com/login
-> > username "rebel" password "builder"
-> > Subscription services located at:
-> > https://www.dcsol.com/public/code/html-subscribe.htm
-> > List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> > List archives located at: https://www.dcsol.com/login
-> > username "rebel" password "builder"
-> > Subscription services located at:
-> > https://www.dcsol.com/public/code/html-subscribe.htm
-> > List administrator: mike.davis@dcsol.com
-> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
-> >
-> >
-> >
-> >
->





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[Wayne G. O'Shea]

Garry...heard about this last weekend while I was dealing with my F-n-law's
ditching of his 701 on Saturday...neither hurt is all the matters in the
long run. I think you've already got that figured out.

Not exactly how I wanted that float stretch tested...but I see it came out
unscathed. Really minor damage when it comes right down to it...you didn't
even break the windshield and you can still close your doors and windows!! A
couple corner wraps, a couple .040 triangles from the outside lower door
sill angles to the carrythru. and the airplane is good to go. We'll probably
a bit more than that but you know what I mean.

Make sure you have a REALLY good look at all the rivets in the lower floor
pan where the tailcone attaches to the cabin section at the rear float
attach points. I mean get in there with a pocket knife and try to lift the
skin overlap, pry on a couple rivet heads. This area tends to be a shear and
the tail keeps coming down and the only way it can is to shear these lower
rivets. On Howard's I didn't even have to drill these out to separate his
cone from cabin and there was absolutely no skin damage in this location.

Floats look VERY repairable. Once that buckled section is cut out it will be
pretty easy to pull and jig back straight/flat and splice in a section.
Thanks to that big access hatch should be fairly easy to work on the main
gear mounting bulkhead as well. Wish we weren't 2000 miles apart!

Still poking thru your pictures while I type this. That windshield to wing
leading edge fairing. The windshield tried to pop/carrythru
parallellagramed(sp)...as the dent is in the windshield cut out, not the
wing side. Very typical...have a good look at the attach fittings and the
rivets in the fus/wing attach brackets. Generally unscathed (even in
Howard's). Also have a good look at the rear wing attach bulkhead going thru
the cabin. Make sure it has no dents/buckles or cracks from the
deceleration.

Panel rivets shearing is very typical in even a hard wheel landing and they
make good indicators. Do not increase rivet pitch or size during repairs for
this very reason. Also put a straight edge on those Fus-4 door posts. Make
sure they are still straight and haven't bowed forward in the middle.

In picture 1911 are you referring to the reflection in the side panel of the
fuselage...or the reflection in the first three bays of the lower side of
the right wings leading edge skin?? I believe you are referring to the
nose...but have a good look at that wing skin. Run your hand over it like
you'd caress your wife's ........ you know what I mean. It could just be a
reflection off the windshield I hope.

I'd also suggest that your right float actually hit first and why it buckled
up at the step (and saved your fus from further damage)..then threw you
forward to the left where the left float dug in and you did the breath
holding slide.... with your chest hard into the shoulder belt. Glad you're
alright...that's all that matters Garry!!

Cheers,
Wayne

----- Original Message -----
From: "wrightdg" <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
To: "rebel builders" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 7:01 PM
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water

On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[wrightdg]

Thanks for the comments Wayne. I will follow thru on all but I don't get
the right float striking first idea. It may well be right because that
was my sense until I thought about it on shore. How could the plane
rotate abruptly to the left if that was the case?

The pics now work in a gallery scheme adn are easier to deal with now.
Clicking on the large view gives the full size picture with all detail.

Glad to be alive. Cheers

On Mon, 2005-25-07 at 16:55 -0400, Wayne G. O'Shea wrote:

Garry...heard about this last weekend while I was dealing with my F-n-law's
ditching of his 701 on Saturday...neither hurt is all the matters in the
long run. I think you've already got that figured out.

Not exactly how I wanted that float stretch tested...but I see it came out
unscathed. Really minor damage when it comes right down to it...you didn't
even break the windshield and you can still close your doors and windows!! A
couple corner wraps, a couple .040 triangles from the outside lower door
sill angles to the carrythru. and the airplane is good to go. We'll probably
a bit more than that but you know what I mean.

Make sure you have a REALLY good look at all the rivets in the lower floor
pan where the tailcone attaches to the cabin section at the rear float
attach points. I mean get in there with a pocket knife and try to lift the
skin overlap, pry on a couple rivet heads. This area tends to be a shear and
the tail keeps coming down and the only way it can is to shear these lower
rivets. On Howard's I didn't even have to drill these out to separate his
cone from cabin and there was absolutely no skin damage in this location.

Floats look VERY repairable. Once that buckled section is cut out it will be
pretty easy to pull and jig back straight/flat and splice in a section.
Thanks to that big access hatch should be fairly easy to work on the main
gear mounting bulkhead as well. Wish we weren't 2000 miles apart!

Still poking thru your pictures while I type this. That windshield to wing
leading edge fairing. The windshield tried to pop/carrythru
parallellagramed(sp)...as the dent is in the windshield cut out, not the
wing side. Very typical...have a good look at the attach fittings and the
rivets in the fus/wing attach brackets. Generally unscathed (even in
Howard's). Also have a good look at the rear wing attach bulkhead going thru
the cabin. Make sure it has no dents/buckles or cracks from the
deceleration.

Panel rivets shearing is very typical in even a hard wheel landing and they
make good indicators. Do not increase rivet pitch or size during repairs for
this very reason. Also put a straight edge on those Fus-4 door posts. Make
sure they are still straight and haven't bowed forward in the middle.

In picture 1911 are you referring to the reflection in the side panel of the
fuselage...or the reflection in the first three bays of the lower side of
the right wings leading edge skin?? I believe you are referring to the
nose...but have a good look at that wing skin. Run your hand over it like
you'd caress your wife's ........ you know what I mean. It could just be a
reflection off the windshield I hope.

I'd also suggest that your right float actually hit first and why it buckled
up at the step (and saved your fus from further damage)..then threw you
forward to the left where the left float dug in and you did the breath
holding slide.... with your chest hard into the shoulder belt. Glad you're
alright...that's all that matters Garry!!

Cheers,
Wayne

----- Original Message -----
From: "wrightdg" <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
To: "rebel builders" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 7:01 PM
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water

On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the lake
was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly lower
than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing about
30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a complete
write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over the
top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in the
ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment. The
direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were flattened
out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF area
kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft. This
movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at the
hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added. It
is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to the
post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at the
bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about an
inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface of
the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer (COPA)
after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be looking
for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels with
consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road just
out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep on
this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group and
in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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[Wayne G. O'Shea]

Hit hard on the right first....momentum would throw it left and forward
sticking the nose of the left float. I think we all need to mount cameras to
our wing tips for technique critiquing.

Cheers,
Wayne

----- Original Message -----
From: "wrightdg" <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
To: "rebel builders" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: FOKM on Glassy Water

Thanks for the comments Wayne. I will follow thru on all but I don't get
the right float striking first idea. It may well be right because that
was my sense until I thought about it on shore. How could the plane
rotate abruptly to the left if that was the case?

The pics now work in a gallery scheme adn are easier to deal with now.
Clicking on the large view gives the full size picture with all detail.

Glad to be alive. Cheers

On Mon, 2005-25-07 at 16:55 -0400, Wayne G. O'Shea wrote:

Garry...heard about this last weekend while I was dealing with my

F-n-law's

ditching of his 701 on Saturday...neither hurt is all the matters in the
long run. I think you've already got that figured out.

Not exactly how I wanted that float stretch tested...but I see it came

out

unscathed. Really minor damage when it comes right down to it...you

didn't

even break the windshield and you can still close your doors and

windows!! A

couple corner wraps, a couple .040 triangles from the outside lower

door

sill angles to the carrythru. and the airplane is good to go. We'll

probably

a bit more than that but you know what I mean.

Make sure you have a REALLY good look at all the rivets in the lower

floor

pan where the tailcone attaches to the cabin section at the rear float
attach points. I mean get in there with a pocket knife and try to lift

the

skin overlap, pry on a couple rivet heads. This area tends to be a shear

and

the tail keeps coming down and the only way it can is to shear these

lower

rivets. On Howard's I didn't even have to drill these out to separate

his

cone from cabin and there was absolutely no skin damage in this

location.

Floats look VERY repairable. Once that buckled section is cut out it

will be

pretty easy to pull and jig back straight/flat and splice in a section.
Thanks to that big access hatch should be fairly easy to work on the

main

gear mounting bulkhead as well. Wish we weren't 2000 miles apart!

Still poking thru your pictures while I type this. That windshield to

wing

leading edge fairing. The windshield tried to pop/carrythru
parallellagramed(sp)...as the dent is in the windshield cut out, not the
wing side. Very typical...have a good look at the attach fittings and

the

rivets in the fus/wing attach brackets. Generally unscathed (even in
Howard's). Also have a good look at the rear wing attach bulkhead going

thru

the cabin. Make sure it has no dents/buckles or cracks from the
deceleration.

Panel rivets shearing is very typical in even a hard wheel landing and

they

make good indicators. Do not increase rivet pitch or size during repairs

for

this very reason. Also put a straight edge on those Fus-4 door posts.

Make

sure they are still straight and haven't bowed forward in the middle.

In picture 1911 are you referring to the reflection in the side panel of

the

fuselage...or the reflection in the first three bays of the lower side

of

the right wings leading edge skin?? I believe you are referring to the
nose...but have a good look at that wing skin. Run your hand over it

like

you'd caress your wife's ........ you know what I mean. It could just be

a

reflection off the windshield I hope.

I'd also suggest that your right float actually hit first and why it

buckled

up at the step (and saved your fus from further damage)..then threw you
forward to the left where the left float dug in and you did the breath
holding slide.... with your chest hard into the shoulder belt. Glad

you're

alright...that's all that matters Garry!!

Cheers,
Wayne

----- Original Message -----
From: "wrightdg" <wrightdg@davincibb.net>
To: "rebel builders" <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 7:01 PM
Subject: FOKM on Glassy Water

On Friday July 15 at approx 1227 pm I was about to do solo touch and
goes at Eagle Lake,AB. (5 km SE Strathmore) The water was glassy, my
descent rate was too high for glassy water, and my location on the

lake

was several hundred meters from shore. Approach speed was slightly

lower

than I wanted and elevation above the water was indeterminate so I
decided to go around and firewalled the throttle. I thought I was
between 10 and 20 feet above the water or thereabouts and the nose was
still down a bit as I had not entered a flare.

As soon as the throttle was firewalled the left float struck the water
and being in a slight nose down attitude not ready for striking the
water, the left nosewheel cavity grabbed visciously and swung the
aircraft 90 degrees to the direction of flight. Bad luck so far!

In any aircraft but the Rebel and perhaps any but FOKM this would
immediately result in the forward (right) wing digging in and the
aircraft capsizing to the right.

Incredible as this sounds, she did not capsize but stayed upright and
floating. On touching down it stayed pretty much level, skidding
violently to the right until it came to a halt within I'm guessing

about

30 meters. With slightly better skill, I beached the aircraft at the
nearest location which just happened to be the home of a retired AME
from Petro Canada.

We inspected the aircraft together and tethered it to shore while my
hand started shaking when I realized how close I had come to a

complete

write-off potentially including self.

Damages appear to be:
1. Right float tail submerged and apparently the flow of water over

the

top of the float was sufficiently forceful to bend it down and kink it
aft of the step. About 1 inch of bend down and a couple of kinks in

the

ribs in the storage compartment just forward of the wheelwell. This
float will be repairable and is judged to be flyable at the moment.

The

direction of force on the rear of the float seems somewhat counter
intuitive initially and the only way I can rationalize it is that the
flow over the top was pretty extreme. It still doesn't really wash for
me because the flow under the bottom should have been just as extreme.
2. The thimbles in the x-wires at the front of the floats were

flattened

out by the tension exerted, leaving the x-wires slightly slack. No
damage apparent and the other x-wires remained tight.
3. I believe it is fus70, the lower part of the cowling in the FWF

area

kinked at the forward hardpoint and resulting in canting the firewall
about an inch backwards at the bottm right. This can be forced and
braced forward for the short flight home from inside the aircraft.

This

movement also kinked the upper corner wrap slightly which will
straighten and can be reinforced from inside later. These corners at

the

hard points did not have the extra corner wrap which some have added.

It

is not at all clear what would have failed if such were present.
4. The rivits on the right door post inside, attaching the panel to

the

post sheared as did the top two on the left. Minor kinks occurred at

the

bend corners at the top of the panel.
5. A small amount of kink at the right rear hard point visible from
outside the plane and easily repaired.
6. The rear 5 feet of the left inside spray rail was bent down about

an

inch by the force of water it was lifting up onto the bottom surface

of

the left wing. This doubless made a material contribution to the plane
staying upright.

I reported it as an accident to the TSB, and advised the insurer

(COPA)

after hours and have not heard from them yet. I will probably be

looking

for some help to fix it up as I did not build the aircraft.

On Saturday we pulled the plane up on land and put it on its wheels

with

consideration of flying it home (20 minute flight) off a paved road

just

out front of the AME's home. It is still sitting there while I sleep

on

this a bit.

There will doubtless be many questions occur to members of the group

and

in the interest of safety etc I will be glad to respond to them. As is
obvious by now my bad luck to a sudden turn as well as the aircraft.
Anyone who has seen the aircraft and understands the accident is close
to incredulous at the outcome. So am I! Dr. Wayne's work has certainly
been tested and found to be impressive indeed.
--
Garry Wright
R-068 C-FOKM Amphib
403 931 1573
wrightdg@davincibb.net




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