Jeffrey Ross

IANAL but.... I think you are going to have a hard time getting anything beyond what the insurance company is offering, the reason I say this is you insured your plane stating it had a value of $X, should you try to sue somebody for more $$ they are going to come back and simply say "you stated your airplane was worth $X and that was the agreed value you had with the insurance company." The only thing you might be able to get additional is stuff you had stored in or around the aircraft that wasn't part of the plane itself such as your camping gear, luggage, additional travel expenses, etc. Hiring a lawyer gets very expensive very fast and unless you are going after somebody with deep pockets you may spend more on the attorney that you might be able to recover. I don't even know if proving gross negligence entitles you to collect beyond the value of the aircraft but you still need to realize there are no guarantees when going in front of a judge so you can lay out the perfect case detailing that gross negligence took place, you can still lose the case, but let's assume you proved gross negligence, won the case and with that you can get more than your declared value for the airplane, next problem, do the other pilots (or pilot's estate) have insurance or the dollars to pay a judgement? If not you'll be holding onto a worthless judgement for 20 years (Wisconsin I think the judgements expire after 20yrs). As much as I know it sucks be thankful you and your family weren't injured. The aggravation of dealing with the loss of the aircraft is free, the experience is free, the additional loss just sucks. On a side note, a very good friend of mine was parked 2 planes away (further from the runway) from you in the same row but left on Thursday morning so he missed the accident, He too got to deal with aggravation in 2021 when a plane clipped his wing taxing down a taxiway that was restricted to smaller aircraft, this happened two weeks prior to taking his instrument check ride. As I said the aggravation is free, just be happy you and your family weren't physically injured.

From somebody I know that was a volunteer in the flight line told me that there were two gyrocopters (ELA Eclipse 10s) who have been hot-dogging the Ultralight flight pattern all week, doing things like crossing the threshold at 200 ft then spiralling down to a short landing. They were warned several times, to no avail. He did his spiral trick and slammed right into the chopper turning final. Killed the chopper pilot and injured his own pax. As is often the case, the moron survived. personally I think the ultralight runway is the wild West and if he was warned once he should have been told to leave the second time. I don't know how accurate the information is that I was given but I suspect it is accurate.

I tried sending a response to this a few hours ago from my cell phone but it never posted for some reason. I think what you are referring to is called a "compliant mechanism" which in this case are the locking tabs that need to be pressed in to disconnect the connector. Based upon the material used and how little movement is needed to latch and unlatch the connector I think I'd be able to disconnect and reconnect the part hundreds of times, I think the metal contacts internal to the connector would show wear first in the plating before the plastic fatigued. In regards to matching the polymer I for the most part agree and since I know what it is and can print it, I'll use it, however the manufacturer chose PBT most likely because it works well for injection molding and it can withstand high temperatures, beyond that I'm willing to bet that any of the 3D printing filaments are suitable as long as they are UV stable (PLA is not) and can withstand the expected temperatures, PET-G probably would work fine too. Electrically the connector only has to last for one power cycle as the system is simply a one and done system and there is no communications to/from the discharge cylinder. I'm pretty sure my trip to OSH broke the connector, we loaded up the back seat and floor of the airplane with a lot of bulky items and I'm sure either moving the seat fore and aft or simply piling stuff in the back hit the connector and broke it. I am now going to look closely at the placement of the cylinder to see if its positioning can be adjusted slightly. Right now the cylinder is attached to the back of the seat "pan" right where feet and items on the floor can hit it, I suspect I can move the cylinder so it is directly under the seat frame where it would be better protected. The inflator hose right now comes from around the back of the seat, I'm envisioning it coming from under the seat instead, I'm going to have to pull the seats and look at the system closely. Keep in mind this is on a C182 (H model) and there is plenty of room directly under the seat, this is my plan assuming the installation instructions allow for this which I think they do. In terms of using a home made 3D printed part on a certified aircraft I think this part falls squarely under the owner produced part (FAR 21.9 (a)(5)). Granted the final authority does fall on the IA to make sure it is suitably made before he/she installs it, but I don't think I'll have a problem with that. Jeff

The living hinge as you call it, I believe it's referred to as a "compliant structure" since this connector doesn't need to be removed very often if at all I don't expect an issue, plus even if it did need to be removed the amount of flexibility needed is very minor and shouldn't be an issue even after hundreds of removals. To your second question, what caused it to break... Loading up the plane to/from OSH, or at least that is when it was noticed. I suspect something hit it. The other possibility is the wire got stuck and when the seat was moved forward it pulled the cableout. The cylinder is attached to the back of the seat where rear passengers could kick it plus when it was installed there was no strain relief gives to this wire either. I'm going to look to see if the cylinder can be moved/rotated so it is under the seat thus it'll have more protection and provide some strain relief. If there are questions about installing a "home made" piece in a certified aircraft, I'm confident this falls squarely under the owner produced parts clause. Owner produced parts still have to be approved the A&P who installs them as being airworthy, but I don't expect an issue there. Truth be told I didn't design the part, my son did, I figured I paid for his mechanical engineering degree so he owes me the occasional 3D print. Total cost to print the part (excluding college tuition) about $0.25 in material, sure beats the almost $600 the vendor wanted to replace the 10" wire that had nothing on it except 2 connectors. Jeff

Just following up as I wasn't able to obtain the broken connector. I ended up designing and 3D printing the part. The plastic used for the original part was Polybutylene Terephthalate which is a material I should be able to print on my printer, if not I'll use PETG. Attached is a picture of the part printed in PLA while waiting for the PBT to come in at which point I'll reprint the piece.

I too am looking for this connector, anybody have one from a discarded/replaced system that they would be willing to part with? Thanks, Jeff