New Blanik AD

To whom it may concern,

EASA has just published a new AD: EASA AD 2010-0185-E.

It grounds all Blaniks with immediate effect, including L-13, L-13A and
all aircraft that passed earlier AD inspections. Reason is that the failed
wing spar on the Austrian accident glider failed before reaching its
theoretical lifetime, and it failed due to fatigue.

Grounding is pending development of terminating action, which I imagine
will take considerable time, and expense...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

Eric Munk
The Netherlands

On Sep 6, 1:49*am, Eric Munk wrote:
To whom it may concern,

EASA has just published a new AD: EASA AD 2010-0185-E.

It grounds all Blaniks with immediate effect, including L-13, L-13A and
all aircraft that passed earlier AD inspections. Reason is that the failed
wing spar on the Austrian accident glider failed before reaching its
theoretical lifetime, and it failed due to fatigue.

Grounding is pending development of terminating action, which I imagine
will take considerable time, and expense...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

Eric Munk
The Netherlands

It will be interesting how the US FAA handles this one.
Anyone have a link to the EASA AD?

On Sep 6, 4:49*am, Eric Munk wrote:
To whom it may concern,

EASA has just published a new AD: EASA AD 2010-0185-E.

It grounds all Blaniks with immediate effect, including L-13, L-13A and
all aircraft that passed earlier AD inspections. Reason is that the failed
wing spar on the Austrian accident glider failed before reaching its
theoretical lifetime, and it failed due to fatigue.

Grounding is pending development of terminating action, which I imagine
will take considerable time, and expense...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

Eric Munk
The Netherlands

"Terminating action" ???

Is that as bad as it sounds -- have all the L13's been reduced to
permanent
lawn ornament status? At least scrap aluminum alloy is going for
around
$1/lb these days...

-- Matt

On Sep 6, 4:40*pm, BTiz wrote:
On Sep 6, 1:49*am, Eric Munk wrote:





To whom it may concern,

EASA has just published a new AD: EASA AD 2010-0185-E.

It grounds all Blaniks with immediate effect, including L-13, L-13A and
all aircraft that passed earlier AD inspections. Reason is that the failed
wing spar on the Austrian accident glider failed before reaching its
theoretical lifetime, and it failed due to fatigue.

Grounding is pending development of terminating action, which I imagine
will take considerable time, and expense...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

Eric Munk
The Netherlands

It will be interesting how the US FAA handles this one.
Anyone have a link to the EASA AD?

The BGA have published this link:


There is an update on the BGA website;

LET L13 Blanik - Grounding Notice and September Updates

EASA have just issued AD 2010-0185-E effective 5th September 2010
issuing a Prohibition of all Flights notice. You can view the AD here
- http://ad.easa.europa.eu/blob/easa_a..._2010-0185-E_1.

Am 06.09.2010 17:40, BTiz wrote:
On Sep 6, 1:49 am, Eric Munk wrote:
To whom it may concern,

EASA has just published a new AD: EASA AD 2010-0185-E.

It grounds all Blaniks with immediate effect, including L-13, L-13A and
all aircraft that passed earlier AD inspections. Reason is that the failed
wing spar on the Austrian accident glider failed before reaching its
theoretical lifetime, and it failed due to fatigue.

Grounding is pending development of terminating action, which I imagine
will take considerable time, and expense...

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...

Eric Munk
The Netherlands

It will be interesting how the US FAA handles this one.
Anyone have a link to the EASA AD?

http://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2010-0185-E

"mattm" wrote in message
...
have all the L13's been reduced to permanent lawn ornament status?
At least scrap aluminum alloy is going for around $1/lb these days... :

Well, there's an interesting current thread about sailplane wind vanes.

(Sorry for the gallows humor. This really is a serious subject.)

Vaughn

On Sep 6, 10:14*am, nimbus wrote:
Our blanik has flown only 1200 hours. Has no cracks. Has all its EASA
certification and historical papers.

And now it is grounded. I am really upset about the way LET is
conducting its business and communication about this issue.

I can't even resale it because there is nobody who want to buy it in
those days.

Just can sell it for about 300 kg of aluminium as scrap or give it to
a Air museum.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

How do you *know* it has no fatigue cracks?

That's the root issue here.

Darryl

We inspected every millimeter with Dye Check test inspection.
No cracks means no cracks..

"Scott" wrote in message
.. .
On 9-6-2010 20:50, nimbus wrote:
We inspected every millimeter with Dye Check test inspection.
No cracks means no cracks..


Well, the good news with that is that when they decide on a test
procedure, you shouldn't have anything to worry about unless they mandate
something like removing wing skins to inspect...

My guess is that with a problem of this magnitude, removing the wing skins
to replace the structure or to modify the structure is exactly what is going
to be required.

If I was an enterprising manufacturer, I would be designing a new wing kit
to sell to people with these grounded gliders. I would design it to use as
many parts from the old wing as possible.

It sounds to me as if the engineers of this glider really screwed the pooch,
with this mess. No way a well designed wing should be having this serious
of a problem, IMHO.
--
Jim in NC

On Sep 6, 7:09*pm, "Morgans" wrote:
"Scott" wrote in message

.. .

On 9-6-2010 20:50, nimbus wrote:
We inspected every millimeter with Dye Check test inspection.
No cracks means no cracks..

Well, the good news with that is that when they decide on a test
procedure, you shouldn't have anything to worry about unless they mandate
something like removing wing skins to inspect...

My guess is that with a problem of this magnitude, removing the wing skins
to replace the structure or to modify the structure is exactly what is going
to be required.

If I was an enterprising manufacturer, I would be designing a new wing kit
to sell to people with these grounded gliders. *I would design it to use as
many parts from the old wing as possible.

It sounds to me as if the engineers of this glider really screwed the pooch,
with this mess. *No way a well designed wing should be having this serious
of a problem, IMHO.
--
Jim in NC

IIRC, this is what they attempted to do over twenty years ago as
L-13's approached their initial life limits in the early-mids 1980's.
Return to factory for spar cap replacements. Some suspected it was a
make work attempt. Pressure was such that a 500 hour inspection
scheme was initiated in some countries. The troubling thing is that a
wing came off a 2300 hour glider in Austria. That said, the right
wing broke off an L-13 over Aspen, Colorado in August 1975 also with
two fatalities. The sketchy NTSB report cites severe turbulence at
cloud base and no fitted g-meter.

This latest EASA AD is still only suggesting that fatigue MAY be the
cause. Exceeding the flight envelope frequently is certainly another
possibility leading to wing failure or accelerated fatigue.

Frank Whiteley