Proposed SZD-55 EASA AD now out for comment - "Flight Controls – Elevator Control System / Vertical Tail – Inspection"

On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 11:36:12 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Why are you telling me this, Herb?Â* Do you feel better about yourself by
measuring a certain part of your anatomy in mm than in inches?

BTW Johathan's near mishap would not have happened had Shemp-Hirth and
"the rest of the world" had used the English system.

On 3/25/2018 8:10 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 4:05:06 PM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
I took delivery of a brand new Ventus 2c, had the W&B done for my weight plus chute. Took the glider for it's first flight and thank goodness it was a great soaring day as it took me about two hours to be able to control it between 45-75 knots. Turns out they figured out the correct weight, say 5 pounds, wrote it in log book, but when they actually the weight in they used Kilograms, so I had 5 kg instead of 5 lb in tail. We figured it out, but I forgot the number, I was WELL aft of the aft most CG. I agree, check W&B.


On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 9:28:27 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 10:15:36 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
When I bought my SZD glider, I found that the previous owner had removed ~10 lbs of factory installed lead ballast from the nose. The ballast mount location was hidden behind an access panel.
- when I bought my Russia it came with 9 pounds of lead shot / epoxy mix permanently mounted in the nose, hidden behind the front bulkhead panel.. Thankfully the seller told me about it. (And for me flying it, I had to add even more ballast in another forward location.) Be careful with the W&B!
Earth to Dan Marotta: here's another great reason to go metric, don't ya think? Glad you survived the Kilo-Bomb, Jonathan.

--
Dan, 5J

Dan, I'm just puzzled that someone of your intelligence doesn't see the obvious supremacy of the metric system. Don't look backwards, join the French who came up with it and all the enlightened rest of the world (among them every single scientist). Your side has lost the battle long ago.

Yaas, and I used metric in a lot of my engineering education and work,
but I learned to fly using the English system and, having tried metric
instruments, I prefer the English.Â* I don't much care what others use.


On 3/25/2018 1:53 PM, Tom BravoMike wrote:
On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 11:36:12 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Why are you telling me this, Herb?Â* Do you feel better about yourself by
measuring a certain part of your anatomy in mm than in inches?

(...) --
Dan, 5J
That's hilarious, Dan. Talk to your doctor(s). It seems to me that here in the US, without making much fuzz about it, our health care providers have actually switched secretly to metric. I can hear millimeters milliliters, kilograms around me all the time. Dentists, family doctors, hospitals...

--
Dan, 5J

Hahahahahaha..............

A major part of intelligence is the ability to make one's own choices
rather than blindly following the pack.Â* Are these the same scientists
who first were hysterical about "global warming" then, when that didn't
pan out, got on the "climate change" bandwagon? Aren't they the ones
whose emails were revealed to be circling the wagons to keep the
narrative going to protect their financial grants?

Give me a rational argument and I'll listen, but so far, all I've heard
is the bandwagon appeal.

Better still, start a thread about why the metric or English system is
better or worse.Â* We need more jokes.

How about this?Â* Why is the metric system better than the English
system?Â* Because people have 10 fingers rather than 16.



On 3/25/2018 2:58 PM, wrote:
Dan, I'm just puzzled that someone of your intelligence doesn't see the obvious supremacy of the metric system. Don't look backwards, join the French who came up with it and all the enlightened rest of the world (among them every single scientist). Your side has lost the battle long ago.

--
Dan, 5J

I have a metric altimeter, unused, came with a used glider I purchased, free to anybody who wants to be clubbed about the head with it.

On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 1:03:43 PM UTC-4, Dan Daly wrote:
On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 11:14:57 AM UTC-4, AS wrote:
If memory serves me right, there was a fatal accident with a SZD55 maybe a year or two ago which sounded very similar to what the British accident report summary states:
'During a towed launch, the glider was seen to climb rapidly. After disconnecting from the tow rope with a very high pitch angle, the glider rolled to the right and descended before hitting the ground in a nose-down attitude. The pilot was fatally injured.'
I cannot find the NTSB accident report for the accident in the US but it may be worth looking into it.

Uli
'AS'

Uli:

NTSB Identification: CEN16FA308
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, August 06, 2016 in Channahon, IL
Aircraft: PZL-BIELSKO SZD 55-1, registration: N551DR
Injuries: 1 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
[A BUNCH DELETED FOR BREVITY] QUOTE ...The empennage remained intact and exhibited no damage. The wing and horizontal stabilizer attach points were attached properly and were secure. The flight controls, including the spoilers, were checked for continuity from the flight controls to their respective surfaces. Flight control cables and control tubes were traced and all breaks were consistent with overload. No preimpact flight control continuity anomalies were detected... UNQUOTE

On initial roll, glider went over bump, glider jumped, changed position of the unsecured back seat adjustment, and pilot was holding to the stick, going 10 inches back.
Same like young girl by PennState 3rd deadly flight in Std Cirrus few years back.

On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 11:10:49 AM UTC-4, wrote:
The horizontal stabilizer attachment on the 55 is one of the easiest designs I have seen and I never had a problem installing it. It went on perfectly and easily every time.
I have a totally unsubstantiated theory about what may have happened. I am wondering if material was removed at the 3000 hour inspection for the insertion of a borescope and never replaced?
Tragic none the less.

Bob 7U


On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 10:15:36 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 9:07:25 AM UTC-4, Dan Daly wrote:

The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch published a thorough 22 page report. https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib...zd-55-1-g-cklr

From that report:

"In a photograph taken in July 2006 while this repair was being carried out, the enlarged elevator lever slot in the horizontal rib of the tail fin is clearly visible, indicating that it had been modified prior to this point."

'Accident waiting to happen' for 12 years.

When I bought my SZD glider, I found that the previous owner had removed ~10 lbs of factory installed lead ballast from the nose. The ballast mount location was hidden behind an access panel.

Somebody modified this glider, I think. Never before I saw opening on upper surface level.Maybe somebody had a problem with rigging ?
If elevator is trimmed all the way back it would be hard or impossible to install horizontal.
Maybe somebody's solution for this,was to cut opening.
Ryszard

On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 1:58:44 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 11:36:12 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Why are you telling me this, Herb?Â* Do you feel better about yourself by
measuring a certain part of your anatomy in mm than in inches?

BTW Johathan's near mishap would not have happened had Shemp-Hirth and
"the rest of the world" had used the English system.

On 3/25/2018 8:10 AM, wrote:
On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 4:05:06 PM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
I took delivery of a brand new Ventus 2c, had the W&B done for my weight plus chute. Took the glider for it's first flight and thank goodness it was a great soaring day as it took me about two hours to be able to control it between 45-75 knots. Turns out they figured out the correct weight, say 5 pounds, wrote it in log book, but when they actually the weight in they used Kilograms, so I had 5 kg instead of 5 lb in tail. We figured it out, but I forgot the number, I was WELL aft of the aft most CG. I agree, check W&B.


On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 9:28:27 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at 10:15:36 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
When I bought my SZD glider, I found that the previous owner had removed ~10 lbs of factory installed lead ballast from the nose. The ballast mount location was hidden behind an access panel.
- when I bought my Russia it came with 9 pounds of lead shot / epoxy mix permanently mounted in the nose, hidden behind the front bulkhead panel. Thankfully the seller told me about it. (And for me flying it, I had to add even more ballast in another forward location.) Be careful with the W&B!
Earth to Dan Marotta: here's another great reason to go metric, don't ya think? Glad you survived the Kilo-Bomb, Jonathan.

--
Dan, 5J

Dan, I'm just puzzled that someone of your intelligence doesn't see the obvious supremacy of the metric system. Don't look backwards, join the French who came up with it and all the enlightened rest of the world (among them every single scientist). Your side has lost the battle long ago.

I've always puzzled why people think the metric system superior. All they did was throw out a bunch of units that were convenient, keeping just one that is arbitrary. If you are math challenged, use inches, microinches, kiloinches, nanoinches, megainches, etc. That's all the French did. So a nautical mile (actually a useful measure, being one degree of latitude) is 72.91 kiloinches or 1.852 kilometers. Can't see the wisdom of one over the other. One nM works better for me.

People point weight, isn't it wonderful that a kilogram is a liter of water.. But of course it isn't. A liter of water weighs 9.8 Newtons.

People point weight, isn't it wonderful that a kilogram is a liter of water. But of course it isn't. A liter of water weighs 9.8 Newtons.


Your litre of water has a mass of 1 Kg.

It weighs 9.8 newtons on Earth, something different on Mars, but still has a mass of 1 kg.

To be correct (and some may call it being anal): the one liter of water cause a force of 9.81N. It does not ‘weigh’ 9.81N!
Uli
‘AS’

(... snip)

So a nautical mile (actually a useful measure, being one degree of latitude) is 72.91 kiloinches or 1.852 kilometers. Can't see the wisdom of one over the other. One nM works better for me. (...)

Of course you mean one minute, not degree. Wikipedia: "A nautical mile (symbol M, NM or nmi) is a unit of distance, set by international agreement as being exactly 1,852 meters (about 6,076 feet). Historically, it was defined as the distance spanned by one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth (north-south), and developed from the sea mile and the related geographical mile."

I wonder how it can be useful in gliding. We don't fly along the meridians, i.e. North-South all the time, do we?