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lcfitt(at)sbcglobal.net
Guest

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:49 pm Post subject: Boneyard

Kay and I finally got to the salvage yard to pick up personal belongings and 

look over the remains of N96KL.  I thought some of you might be interested 

in what we saw.



First, though, was what we felt.  I had been concerned with what my emotions 

might be when I saw the remains and was surprised to find that the reunion 

was a bit dispassionate.  It was not very emotional at all.  Kay shed a tear 

as we drove away, maybe because the airplane had been, in a sense, a bit of 

competition with her for my time for nearly fifteen years.  I took no 

souvenirs, but have numerous pictures taken over those same years and tons 

of video footage taken during the numerous flights.  Maybe that is why I was 

not too moved seeing the pile of "junk"  We would have liked to have 

lingered longer to just poke around, but the owner of the salvage yard 

seemed to have no interest in us or our interests.  I guess by agreement, he 

stood as guardion of the salvage remains as an agent of the new owners - the 

insurance company to see that nothing belonging to them ended up in the 

trunk of our car.  On the drive out, as we talked about him, I opined that 

he probably had zero personality.  Kay suggested that it might be possible 

to be below zero in that area and we both laughed.



And junk it was.



A brief description.  The engine and all attached to it including the 

firewall and instrument panel were angled toward the ground so the spinner 

flange was at ground level.  The windsheld and all the skylight area tubing 

was just gone as were the doors.  The wings were folded back against a 

crumpled fuselage (for trailering) and the empennage was moderately damaged. 

The wings were pretty much intact, but the wing spars were damaged as were 

the flaperons, but not severly, yet not salvagable without major work.  The 

empennage looked the best of all the structural components - salvageable but 

not without some welding.  Interestingly enough, the seats were just sitting 

there as secure as could be with the seat belts piled on them with virtually 

nothing overhead and everything forward moved forward which provided for 

easy egress for us after the dust cleared.



The most striking thing I noticed was that the lift struts were perfect, 

including the recently discussed rod end fittings.  These are probably the 

only structural members that could be bolted directly to another airplane 

with nothing needed except cleaning up the fairings.



For those of you that opted for the Hammerhead landing gear when the quiet 

war was raging between Grove and Hammerhead, the following might be of 

interest.  the gear was sheared off completely, but the gear showed no signs 

of being bent or damaged in any way.  It was my understanding that 

Hammerhead opted for 7075 aluminum bent then treated to T6 , which if true, 

is really tuff stuff and might explain the fine appearance of the gear legs. 

Both tires (Mippi style) were still on the gear and the right tire deflated. 

The left tire was still pressurized.  I didn't have time to examine the tire 

to see why it deflated, nor much time to examine much of any of the engine 

or engine compartment.  I did notice that the battery was in position snugly 

held by the tray and the three adel clamps.  The ELT was on the seats as it 

had triggered and the emergency folks removed it to shut off the signal.



As to the point of impact?   The gear sheared off, the engine was angeled 

down which opened up the cockpit area (absolutely nothing above the seats) 

like breaking a stick over your knee, both wingtips were damaged, but not 

excessively, and the fuselage was crumpled.  At the site, the bottom ring 

cowl was under the tailwheel.  My guess is that we came down hard on the 

landing gear and it didn't absorb as much energy as might be expected and 

the fuselage folded down over it.  We had wondered what had caused the 

puncture wound in Kay's calf - there was lots of broken structural tubing 

that might have caused that.



The engine was apparently still running as one prop blade was sheared off at 

the hub and the engine apparently ran for a third of a revolution as the 

sheared blade was in a horizontal position.



One more interesting thing that I noticed.  I made a thin aluminum enclosure 

to hold the power supply for the video camera.  It was about .5"x1.5"x2" in 

dimension, mounted by adel clamps and the circuit board for the supply (the 

only mass) mounted in the opposite side from the adel clamps.  The impact 

distorted this box to a parallelogram shape, by maybe 1/8".  I don't know 

how many Gs that represents, but we feel pretty fortunate we are doing as 

well as we are, let alone us both being here.



Regards,



Lowell

- The Matronics Kitfox-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

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shinco(at)bright.net
Guest

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:19 am Post subject: Boneyard

Thank GOD,,you guys are doing fine now Lowell Family.air planes can be 

replaced.people can not.and the kitfox saved you both.would another 

aircraft saved you in the same matter??I may think not.it just shows you 

and to the rest of us.what a little Kifox can go through and walk away 

from in a accident as your.with out beeing __ __ __....I hope that I do 

not go through what U did.but if I do I want to know what the little 

Kitfox can do in this type of accident as yours.I belive I too could 

walk awy from it too.and in one pice.I wish you the best Lowell family 

and for sharing this story with us,your kit fox family..Steve 

Shinabery,KF 2 ,N554KF,hope to see you again flying your new 

kitfox...... 



Lowell Fitt wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   



 Kay and I finally got to the salvage yard to pick up personal 

 belongings and look over the remains of N96KL.  I thought some of you 

 might be interested in what we saw.



 First, though, was what we felt.  I had been concerned with what my 

 emotions might be when I saw the remains and was surprised to find 

 that the reunion was a bit dispassionate.  It was not very emotional 

 at all.  Kay shed a tear as we drove away, maybe because the airplane 

 had been, in a sense, a bit of competition with her for my time for 

 nearly fifteen years.  I took no souvenirs, but have numerous pictures 

 taken over those same years and tons of video footage taken during the 

 numerous flights.  Maybe that is why I was not too moved seeing the 

 pile of "junk"  We would have liked to have lingered longer to just 

 poke around, but the owner of the salvage yard seemed to have no 

 interest in us or our interests.  I guess by agreement, he stood as 

 guardion of the salvage remains as an agent of the new owners - the 

 insurance company to see that nothing belonging to them ended up in 

 the trunk of our car.  On the drive out, as we talked about him, I 

 opined that he probably had zero personality.  Kay suggested that it 

 might be possible to be below zero in that area and we both laughed.



 And junk it was.



 A brief description.  The engine and all attached to it including the 

 firewall and instrument panel were angled toward the ground so the 

 spinner flange was at ground level.  The windsheld and all the 

 skylight area tubing was just gone as were the doors.  The wings were 

 folded back against a crumpled fuselage (for trailering) and the 

 empennage was moderately damaged. The wings were pretty much intact, 

 but the wing spars were damaged as were the flaperons, but not 

 severly, yet not salvagable without major work.  The empennage looked 

 the best of all the structural components - salvageable but not 

 without some welding.  Interestingly enough, the seats were just 

 sitting there as secure as could be with the seat belts piled on them 

 with virtually nothing overhead and everything forward moved forward 

 which provided for easy egress for us after the dust cleared.



 The most striking thing I noticed was that the lift struts were 

 perfect, including the recently discussed rod end fittings.  These are 

 probably the only structural members that could be bolted directly to 

 another airplane with nothing needed except cleaning up the fairings.



 For those of you that opted for the Hammerhead landing gear when the 

 quiet war was raging between Grove and Hammerhead, the following might 

 be of interest.  the gear was sheared off completely, but the gear 

 showed no signs of being bent or damaged in any way.  It was my 

 understanding that Hammerhead opted for 7075 aluminum bent then 

 treated to T6 , which if true, is really tuff stuff and might explain 

 the fine appearance of the gear legs. Both tires (Mippi style) were 

 still on the gear and the right tire deflated. The left tire was still 

 pressurized.  I didn't have time to examine the tire to see why it 

 deflated, nor much time to examine much of any of the engine or engine 

 compartment.  I did notice that the battery was in position snugly 

 held by the tray and the three adel clamps.  The ELT was on the seats 

 as it had triggered and the emergency folks removed it to shut off the 

 signal.



 As to the point of impact?   The gear sheared off, the engine was 

 angeled down which opened up the cockpit area (absolutely nothing 

 above the seats) like breaking a stick over your knee, both wingtips 

 were damaged, but not excessively, and the fuselage was crumpled.  At 

 the site, the bottom ring cowl was under the tailwheel.  My guess is 

 that we came down hard on the landing gear and it didn't absorb as 

 much energy as might be expected and the fuselage folded down over 

 it.  We had wondered what had caused the puncture wound in Kay's calf 

 - there was lots of broken structural tubing that might have caused that.



 The engine was apparently still running as one prop blade was sheared 

 off at the hub and the engine apparently ran for a third of a 

 revolution as the sheared blade was in a horizontal position.



 One more interesting thing that I noticed.  I made a thin aluminum 

 enclosure to hold the power supply for the video camera.  It was about 

 .5"x1.5"x2" in dimension, mounted by adel clamps and the circuit board 

 for the supply (the only mass) mounted in the opposite side from the 

 adel clamps.  The impact distorted this box to a parallelogram shape, 

 by maybe 1/8".  I don't know how many Gs that represents, but we feel 

 pretty fortunate we are doing as well as we are, let alone us both 

 being here.



 Regards,



 Lowell

- The Matronics Kitfox-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Kitfox-List

dave

Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 1382

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:22 am Post subject: Re: Boneyard

Lowell, 



Excellent write up on the aftermath and saying good bye to your Kitfox. You owe that Kitfox your lives possibly for taking hte brunt of the impact. 



The construction of the Kitfox likely saved your lives.  The Ability of the 4130 to absorb some of the impact.  This cannot be compared but certainly in this instance some of the alum tube aircraft  that seem very popular perhaps the occupants might not have faired as well. 



Also, what was the cause of the oil issue that instigated the forced landing?   Certainly alot of 912 drivers must have the same curiosity. 

What brand oil filter were you using ? 



Glad to hear the "rod ends" were in fact intact.  



I am waiting to see documentation showing 5 gs  or  14 gs .

- The Matronics Kitfox-List Email Forum -

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lcfitt(at)sbcglobal.net
Guest

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:14 am Post subject: Boneyard

Dave,



I don't think we will ever know about the cause of the low oil pressure 

gauge indication.  I doubt the FAA or NTSB will spend a lot of time on this 

due to the many other tasks at hand.  The FAA guy said as much when he was 

here at my home.  He said that he was attempting to get a Rotax rep to look 

at the engine, but to date there is no indication that that has been done. 

At the time of his visit he was still investigating the fatal crash of the 

Bonanza at Cameron Park that same morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOaAZ1i2gNA

And comparitively speaking our mishap was like a fender bender to the 

Highway Patrol.



My feeling, though, it was a faulty sender.  On the Rotax 912 UL the oil 

temp and oil pressure senders are in the front of the engine and in the air 

flow right behind the prop.  I had problems with the temp sender frequently 

due to broken wires.  This I attributed to the prop pulses on the wires.  I 

tied them in very tightly, but sometimes they lasted less than six months. 

The pressure sender?   I am not a trained investigator, but my impression is 

that the engine was still running at the time of impact and neither Kay or I 

recall a stationary prop blade during the descent.  Interestingly enough, I 

have an audio recording of that entire flight, but previous experience of 

listening to recordings of stressful situations in my airplane makes me 

reluctant to listen to it yet.  I have lots of video and that is not a 

problem blood pressure wise, but listening to the audio, for some reason, I 

can feel my heart rate and adrenaline level rise.  It would give the 

duration of the let down as there is conversation between Kay and I as I 

began the descent to the time of impact.  I don't know how long a 912 would 

run with no oil, but I am sure it was at least two or three minutes or more 

after seeing the low oil pressure indication and the hard landing.



Lowell





---

- The Matronics Kitfox-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Kitfox-List

mclayton(at)rochester.rr.
Guest

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:18 am Post subject: Boneyard

Lowell,

As many others, I have been so very glad that the outcome of your accident was, in the end, as positive as it was.  All the prayers were answered, I would say!



Thought you and others might be interested to know about my KitFox II.  I am in the midst of rebuilding it.  The previous owner was involved in a departure stall, and suffered a very hard landing as a result.  He too walked away from the accident.  The front wing spars were destroyed, and the wing tips as well.  The fuselage was actually bent, and one of the landing gear legs was destroyed.  The motor mount was bent, and the prop strike destroyed the prop, of course.  The ability of the aircraft to absorb the punishment, and yet have the pilot walk away from the accident was amazing.  As I rebuild the aircraft, I find few opportunities to make it better structurally (I'm a mechanical engineer).  The welded steel tube structure is without a doubt one of the lightest and strongest structures around, yet with the ability to absorb crash loads, protecting the occupants.  



So, stay with it, and God bless both you and your wife.



 Mike



mclayton(at)rochester.rr.com (mclayton(at)rochester.rr.com)

Mobile: 585-737-5506

Home: 585-352-1763

8 Adams Trail

Spencerport, NY 14559

N16AF (KF II  Rebuild in Progress)

 



On Oct 23, 2007, at 7:48 PM, Lowell Fitt wrote:

[quote]--> Kitfox-List message posted by: "Lowell Fitt" <lcfitt(at)sbcglobal.net (lcfitt(at)sbcglobal.net)>

Kay and I finally got to the salvage yard to pick up personal belongings and look over the remains of N96KL.  I thought some of you might be interested in what we saw.

First, though, was what we felt.  I had been concerned with what my emotions might be when I saw the remains and was surprised to find that the reunion was a bit dispassionate.  It was not very emotional at all.  Kay shed a tear as we drove away, maybe because the airplane had been, in a sense, a bit of competition with her for my time for nearly fifteen years.  I took no souvenirs, but have numerous pictures taken over those same years and tons of video footage taken during the numerous flights.  Maybe that is why I was not too moved seeing the pile of "junk"  We would have liked to have lingered longer to just poke around, but the owner of the salvage yard seemed to have no interest in us or our interests.  I guess by agreement, he stood as guardion of the salvage remains as an agent of the new owners - the insurance company to see that nothing belonging to them ended up in the trunk of our car.  On the drive out, as we talked about him, I opined that he probably had zero personality.  Kay suggested that it might be possible to be below zero in that area and we both laughed.

And junk it was.

A brief description.  The engine and all attached to it including the firewall and instrument panel were angled toward the ground so the spinner flange was at ground level.  The windsheld and all the skylight area tubing was just gone as were the doors.  The wings were folded back against a crumpled fuselage (for trailering) and the empennage was moderately damaged. The wings were pretty much intact, but the wing spars were damaged as were the flaperons, but not severly, yet not salvagable without major work.  The empennage looked the best of all the structural components - salvageable but not without some welding.  Interestingly enough, the seats were just sitting there as secure as could be with the seat belts piled on them with virtually nothing overhead and everything forward moved forward which provided for easy egress for us after the dust cleared.

The most striking thing I noticed was that the lift struts were perfect, including the recently discussed rod end fittings.  These are probably the only structural members that could be bolted directly to another airplane with nothing needed except cleaning up the fairings.

For those of you that opted for the Hammerhead landing gear when the quiet war was raging between Grove and Hammerhead, the following might be of interest.  the gear was sheared off completely, but the gear showed no signs of being bent or damaged in any way.  It was my understanding that Hammerhead opted for 7075 aluminum bent then treated to T6 , which if true, is really tuff stuff and might explain the fine appearance of the gear legs. Both tires (Mippi style) were still on the gear and the right tire deflated. The left tire was still pressurized.  I didn't have time to examine the tire to see why it deflated, nor much time to examine much of any of the engine or engine compartment.  I did notice that the battery was in position snugly held by the tray and the three adel clamps.  The ELT was on the seats as it had triggered and the emergency folks removed it to shut off the signal.

As to the point of impact?   The gear sheared off, the engine was angeled down which opened up the cockpit area (absolutely nothing above the seats) like breaking a stick over your knee, both wingtips were damaged, but not excessively, and the fuselage was crumpled.  At the site, the bottom ring cowl was under the tailwheel.  My guess is that we came down hard on the landing gear and it didn't absorb as much energy as might be expected and the fuselage folded down over it.  We had wondered what had caused the puncture wound in Kay's calf - there was lots of broken structural tubing that might have caused that.

The engine was apparently still running as one prop blade was sheared off at the hub and the engine apparently ran for a third of a revolution as the sheared blade was in a horizontal position.

One more interesting thing that I noticed.  I made a thin aluminum enclosure to hold the power supply for the video camera.  It was about .5"x1.5"x2" in dimension, mounted by adel clamps and the circuit board for the supply (the only mass) mounted in the opposite side from the adel clamps.  The impact distorted this box to a parallelogram shape, by maybe 1/8".  I don't know how many Gs that represents, but we feel pretty fortunate we are doing as well as we are, let alone us both being here.

Regards,

Lowell





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