Safety: June 2008 Archives

An Unusual Attitude salute for an unnamed (I think) United Airlines captain, and international soccer referee Lubos Michel who both made difficult calls in public over the weekend.

Following the Eclipse 500 VLJ incident reported earlier, the FAA has overnight issued an emergency AD on the type. It's a real 'emergency' emergency AD. You can't fly the aeroplane again until you've done the checks and made the amendments - and of course depending on what you find in the checks you may have a grounded aeroplane on your hands.

This sort of thing happens of course and the world gets over it. But in the embryonic VLJ world the regulatory sensitivity is huge. Good luck to all concerned.

Details have emerged, (as we journalists say about things that we didn't know about at the time) of a dire incident on the VLJ that everyone is watching - the Eclipse 500. (Not the one in this pic.)

It's got the NTSB understandably spooked as you can read at the link below.

Fortunately some highly professional piloting saved the occupants and aircraft.

Here's the scenario: double engine control failure during a windshear influenced final approach. FADEC reverts to last recorded power setting, which unfortunately is full power on both engines. Quite handy for the subsequent go-around, not so great for the desired landing. And then things get worse...

There is of course a major issue over the experience levels of at least some of the owner-pilots likely to end up flying this and other VLJs. The debate, I think it is fair to say, is likely to continue. 

Don't blame me - if the FAA says it's a MacDac then a MacDac it is. Anyway, David YJ Hsu in the Los Angeles Aircraft Certification Office, whose happy job it is to keep a caring eye on the nation's Daks, wants you to know that the tailwheel may fall off. He just wants you to know that - he's not saying you should necessarily worry or anything, and he's issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin, the recommendations of which, he stresses, are not mandatory.

What happened was that on 25 February a Dak experienced tailwheel fork failure during rollout after landing. Turned out to be due to a crack from a fastener hole which was probably "present for some time". As the aircraft had 19,482 hours on the clock it's hard to know for just how much time.

Mr Hsu notes that "currently there is no specific inspection requirement of the tailwheel area" (apart from checking that you've got one) and so he's devised a rigorous inspection regime to prevent the above related embarrassment happening to you too. It involves "proper lighting" and a "magnifying glass". He comments that you could do this "during other maintenance activities". (Phew!) And he feels that you should repeat it annually. Up to you though. Gratuitous Daks pic below from Classic Flight.