An Absolutely Horrible Day!

[Txbyker]

1 hour ago, M20Doc said:

As sad as this is for Don, this is a very fitting thread.  How many of you who hire a freelance maintainer check to see if they have adequate shop insurance.  How many check to see if they have manuals to cover your airframe.  The number of people that I’ve helped with manuals leads me to think that many don’t.

Then one of my favourite peeves, improper jacks,  there are many posts on this forum showing examples of homemade jacks.  Some are things of beauty that rival commercial versions, others are down right scary, like the one above, made of EMT conduit, hose clamps and an old table top.

If you jack or allow your fine airplane to be raised on something like this you’re a fool.  It could be your airplane damaged if it fails or worse your life or that of your maintainer.

Clarence

I am that fool.  But when a hurricane is bearing down on you the next day you do what you can to get the gear out of the water!!  

Russ

[Jerry 5TJ]

Strong message Clarence but I agree:  Risking $100K of repairs by using a wobbly $5 bottle jack seems at best ill-considered. 

Get a jack with adequate strength, good stability, locking collars ... and be careful.

 

[FLYFST]

Sorry to hear the terrible news, but as others have said, it is good news that no one was hurt. Regardless of how closely we are tied we are to them, our airplanes are not people and hopefully your bird will be repaired and flying soon.
Hank



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[Yetti]

How many of you put saw horses under the wings?  In jacking safety there are backups so that when the primary fails you don't get squished like a bug.

[donkaye]

Well, it didn't happen the way I thought.  It was much worse.  As absolutely unbelievable as it may seem, it happened while the airplane was just sitting minding its own business of being poked and prodded.  The mechanic was doing the gear bypass test and apparently forgot that the plane was not up on jacks.  With the gear switch up,  he added air pressure to the pitot tube.  Guess what happens at a certain indicated airspeed.  The gear comes up.  Imagine all the gear coming up with the weight of the airplane on the wheels.  He caught it almost immediately, but not before the nose gear went over center and collapsed.  In addition to all the broken stuff in the nose wheel, the rods for the main gear and a bunch of other stuff has to be replaced, as the main gear was trying to retract..  The two bent prop blades saved additional damage.  I ordered a new engine today, but it will at a minimum take 2 months for it to be built and delivered.  What else is there to say?

I put the picture up, then deleted it.  I couldn't stand to see it in print that way.

[NJMac]

Don, that's terrible. My customers often ask me to give explanation of countless mistakes my emplyees make and it always comes back to we are still just men / people doing the best we can at work. Mistakes happen. That being said, it's so hard to explain or find peace with mistakes of this magnitude or gravity.

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[RobertGary1]

11 hours ago, Yetti said:

How many of you put saw horses under the wings?  In jacking safety there are backups so that when the primary fails you don't get squished like a bug.

That always makes me nervous when I’m doing my annual. I’d never get under a car supported by stands that didn’t have backups. The scariest part is lubing the gear jackscrew since it has to be done with the gear all the way up. I get the grease ready, raise the gear and put the lube on as fast as possible and put the gear back down. 

-Robert 

[donkaye]

I didn't get much sleep last night.  Now I'm really worried about the gear motor and everything associated with the gear retraction.  The stress on the motor and structure trying to retract with all the weight of the airplane on the wheels makes me wonder about all of it.

[EricJ]

8 minutes ago, donkaye said:

I didn't get much sleep last night.  Now I'm really worried about the gear motor and everything associated with the gear retraction.  The stress on the motor and structure trying to retract with all the weight of the airplane on the wheels makes me wonder about all of it.

If it didn't pop the breaker, the motor wasn't that stressed.    FWIW, I have to pay attention to airspeed on climbout since if it gets too fast before I pull the gear up it'll pop the breaker during retraction.   If it didn't pop the breaker it probably saw less stress than pulling the gear up near the in-stransit speed. 

The rest of the mechanical stuff shouldn't be difficult to check out.

 

[ArtVandelay]

I didn't get much sleep last night.  Now I'm really worried about the gear motor and everything associated with the gear retraction.  The stress on the motor and structure trying to retract with all the weight of the airplane on the wheels makes me wonder about all of it.

I would contact an expert (Lasar, Maxwell) and ask them for their opinions, I would also ask them what special checks should be done to be sure it’s airworthy. This is more destructive than a gear up landing.

[thinwing]

Well damn...a badly distracted mechanic has to do 3 discreet actions to cause this accident..first power up master than select gear up than walk over to left wing pitot tube ,apply rubber hose and roll up to close airspeed  safety switch to activate gear retraction all the time not noticing the aircraft was not up on jacks!!!I just can't believe this coming from the shop (I'm not naming names but you have posted previous mention of who does your annuals so it's no secret)with such a stellar reputation.So it just proves a shops work can only be as good as their worst mechanic.Im so sorry it has happened Don....

[Immelman]

That is a shame Don.

I hope you at least had some decent time on the engine/prop so as to lessen the blow of this.... hopefully things come out better.

In PSP, there is the burned out carcass of an EMB-120 Brasilia turboprop sitting near the NW corner of the field, used for the fire department. The airplane was totaled after the gear was accidentally retracted on the ground....

[RobertGary1]

44 minutes ago, thinwing said:

Well damn...a badly distracted mechanic has to do 3 discreet actions to cause this accident..first power up master than select gear up than walk over to left wing pitot tube ,apply rubber hose and roll up to close airspeed  safety switch to activate gear retraction all the time not noticing the aircraft was not up on jacks!!!I just can't believe this coming from the shop (I'm not naming names but you have posted previous mention of who does your annuals so it's no secret)with such a stellar reputation.So it just proves a shops work can only be as good as their worst mechanic.Im so sorry it has happened Don....

A guy could have been doing this for 30 years and make a mistake once. I’ve made mistakes at work, sometimes enough to feel dumb about. It can happen to the best guy on an off day. 

-Robert

[jetdriven]

2 hours ago, donkaye said:

I didn't get much sleep last night.  Now I'm really worried about the gear motor and everything associated with the gear retraction.  The stress on the motor and structure trying to retract with all the weight of the airplane on the wheels makes me wonder about all of it.

Have the motor sent out to be inspected and repaired as necessary and put it on the bill. I would have serious reservations about having the shop work on your airplane any further.  

[aviatoreb]

Wow Don, what a strange and unusual incident.

I am sure you are aware but some insurance policies allow for loaner airplanes you might find to rent for the two-three months you are without your own airplane.

[ArtVandelay]

A guy could have been doing this for 30 years and make a mistake once. I’ve made mistakes at work, sometimes enough to feel dumb about. It can happen to the best guy on an off day. 
-Robert

I’ll bet he was distracted or interrupted.

[Emmet]

I would also check if the engine mount has been bent ...

I had a horrible and expensive maintenance experience last year - so I have an idea how you feel.

All the best and good luck that it will be sorted out in a reasonable time !

[jetdriven]

46 minutes ago, teejayevans said:

I’ll bet he was distracted or interrupted.

Just the same, a mechanic’s action or omission can kill people. The former owner of LASAR is in a wheelchair because someone didn’t tighten the fuel line at the spider valve. The exact same thing happened to a personal friend. Both resulted in off-field landings a right after takeoff. Both could have been dead.  

Edited September 29, 2018 by jetdriven

[N6758N]

1 hour ago, jetdriven said:

Just the same, a pilot’s action or omission can kill people. The former owner of LASAR is in a wheelchair because someone didn’t tighten the fuel line at the spider valve. The exact same thing happened to a personal friend. Both resulted in off-field landings a right after takeoff. Both could have been dead.  

Fixed it for you...

[jetdriven]

Just now, N6758N said:

Fixed it for you...

I have both licenses. Do you think that a mechanic’s  actions or omissions  are any less important to loss of life or property than that of a Pilot? 

[N6758N]

22 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

I have both licenses. Do you think that a mechanic’s  actions or omissions  are any less important to loss of life or property than that of a Pilot? 

Absolutely not, and obviously a mechanic's mistake's can have faster/more devastating consequences- but statistics prove pilot's mistakes kill way more people than a mechanic's. 

[jackn]

3 hours ago, RobertGary1 said:

A guy could have been doing this for 30 years and make a mistake once. I’ve made mistakes at work, sometimes enough to feel dumb about. It can happen to the best guy on an off day. 

-Robert

Strongly disagree. There are ‘stuff happens, there are ‘Brain farts’. I feel This was gross negligence caused by the mechanic being too lazy to check everything was in order before lifting the gear handle. 

[Hephaestus]

Complacency gets everyone. 

Likely told apprentices to get it in the air the day before... Or it was in the air before lunch, and he'd checked and verified and ensured stable - gets into goes to work... Doesn't know someone pulled the Jack's over the lunch hour for an emergency...

I can't defend his actions, we had those guys killed in the cooling plant near me last year - complacency got them too. 

I'm missing a finger - complacency. (Well maybe ignorance / poor training / lack of safeties - but If I'd been following the training I'd received in the previous 25 years and 8 previous industries - I'd have been following my usual rack-out tag-out lock-out safe-out procedures and wouldn't have exposed myself because I should have known better - that at the end of day falls on me)

Things happen, sorry your ride was damaged, try to take a deep breath, have a nice cohiba and shot of Glen Livet 18yr old, Let the insurance company and business work it out. It's not something you can control or affect. It wasn't caused by your choices. It's still a thing - at the end of the day, hopefully no one was seriously hurt in the incident and have faith that it can be repaired good as new. 

 

 

 

 

[donkaye]

I'm about to leave for FedEx to overnight Air Power my Deposit on my Reman to get the 8 week cycle going.  Does anyone know of any less expensive distributor for Lycoming?  No way am I doing just a tear down and rebuild.  I don't trust outside overhaul shops.  I've heard too many horror stories.  Plus the time frames are about the same.  I don't expect to get the plane back in the air for a minimum of 3 months.  The insurance company is going to pay for that lack of availability if I have anything to say about it, because I use my plane extensively in travel for flight instruction.  This whole experience is not going to be a cheap issue for them.

[thinwing]

1 hour ago, jackn said:

Strongly disagree. There are ‘stuff happens, there are ‘Brain farts’. I feel This was gross negligence caused by the mechanic being too lazy to check everything was in order before lifting the gear handle. 

I agree ,this was not a simple forgotten wrench,forgot to final torque etc...gross negligence in the most aberrant way...some one that situationally challenged ,so unaware that he couldn't see the jacks probably wouldn't have noticed another mechanic under the aircraft when he performed the final trio of events that activated the gear.