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david.corbett5(at)btinter
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 Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:20 pm Post subject: UK PFA news - Europa safety mods |
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Wearing my UK PFA Executive Committee and Europa Club committee hats, I asked Francis Donaldson (PFA Chief Engineer, for those of you overseas who do not know) earlier this week if he could release a progress report on the proposed Europa factory/PFA modifications to be incorporated in UK Europae following the tragic accident to G-HOFC. You will see Francis’s reply below.
However, before you read it, I must ask you all to consider some other factors which Francis passed to me in a second e-mail, and confirmed by voicemail whilst I was at a funeral this afternoon.
1 We are all aware that UK AAIB are shortly to issue a Special Bulletin about the G-HOFC accident. Francis tells me that this Bulletin is not expected to give any firm conclusion about the accident – investigations are still ongoing into the very complex factors involved – and the Bulletin will basically only draw attention to the Flight Safety Bulletins issued by the PFA (see next paragraph). If the AAIB Bulletin reports as normal “Special’s” do, I hope that we will at least be told publicly the scale of the damage/destruction that occurred to G-HOFC, even if no conclusions can yet be given.
2 Some Europae, like mine, have passed the inspections required by UK Europa Flight Safety Bulletins 006 and 007, but are grounded because the tailplane pip pin recesses have not been built to the dimensions in the build manual – in many cases, the dimensions are smaller, especially around the joint between the recess and the upper skin. Owners such as myself are obviously frustrated that we cannot fly but, quite understandably, Francis asks that those of us in a similar position to mine wait for the tailplane pip pin mod to come out, and do not chase PFA Engineering for individual special attention. As we can all appreciate, PFA Engineering have been severely overloaded by the investigations, and the resulting mod design work involved, that arises from this accident, and other PFA aircraft types are suffering as a result of these pressures on PFA Engineering. This situation has not been helped by the sad loss, to a job in Australia, of our recent and excellent recruit to the engineering team, Kerry Ashcroft; so PFA are short of an engineer again.
3 The proposed mods (outlined below) are currently with Europa (2004) Ltd being formatted. There will, of course, be a lead time on the supply of some mod kit parts – especially the longer wing rear pins required for Classic aircraft. I will have a discussion with Roger or John early next week to see whether they are yet prepared to go public as to the timescale for issuing the mod kits.
4 The tailplane mod will only require normal composite materials – BID and epoxy (the mod will specify readily available epoxies); Andy Draper has done a trial tailplane mod – to “ready for cosmetic finish” – in one working day.
5 For those in the UK West Midland/Wales area, Adrian Lloyd, my PFA inspector, and I are proposing to run a joint operation here at Shobdon for several local owners to get the tailplane pip pin access mods all done together. If you are interested in joining this team effort, please contact me off list. david.corbett5(at)btinternet.com (david.corbett5(at)btinternet.com) (put “Europa mod” in subject box, please)
Finally, I would like to express our Europa community’s thank to Francis and his team, and Roger and John at the factory, for the enormous amount of work that they have had to put into our situation following the sad accident.
As one of our committee members has said to me this evening – “Fly safely” – but of course I can’t, at least in my Europa!
David
UK 265 G-BZAM
From: Francis Donaldson [mailto:francis.donaldson(at)pfa.org.uk]
Sent: 06 July 2007 16:25
To: David.Corbett
Cc: Brian Hope
Subject: RE: Europa update
Dear David
Following the tragic accident with G-HOFC, in conjunction with Europa Aircraft we have carried out a safety study for the Europa rear wing attachment and tailplane system as a whole and this has resulted in various modifications being planned. These do not necessarily reflect the actual course of events in the structural failure of G-HOFC, which is still under investigation.
The modifications which are currently being compiled achieve the following:
- On Classics only, check centrality of rear wing pins in hard-point, fit new rear wing pins with longer threaded portion and fit washer and nut on the inside, behind the existing hard-point. This involves making a recess in the bottom skin locally for access, refilling with foam piece afterwards and patching skin locally.
- On Classics and XS, ovalise the pip pin holes in the ends of the tailplane torque tube to prevent the pip-pin picking up actuating torque loads. Add an extra pip-pin recess of an improved design to each tail undersurface which will provide a reliable secondary retention system to prevent the tailplane half moving outboard if the sleeve should become disbonded. In the process of forming the new pip-pin recesses, key the sleeves into the structure to help prevent them becoming disbonded. Pip-pin will still enter tailplane from above. Recess in bottom surface can be filled afterwards for cosmetic purposes leaving tailplane looking as previously. Alternatively, the Europa club mod for improved sleeve retention can be incorporated at build.
- On Classics and XS, add placards to the tailplanes adjacent to the pip-pin holes calling attention to the need to check presence of pip-pins and engagement of
anti-balance tab pins before flight.
The modifications will provide full details and, where needed, modified parts.
Due to the amount of interest expressed by owners in the use of Loctite to prevent slop in the torque tube pinned joints, Europa Aircraft are also experimenting with the use of Loctite to see if this seems a viable proposition. Alternatively, we are also looking into the possibility of adding hidden stops to the tailplanes to contact simultaneously with the mass-balance meeting its stops. These are intended to prevent the torque tube and its pinned joints experiencing shock loads when the mass balance hits its stops, and so avoid enlargement of the torque tube pin holes causing slop in the mass balance arm and slop between the two tailplane halves.
Best regards
Francis Donaldson
[quote][b]
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carl(at)flyers.freeserve.
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| Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject: UK PFA news - Europa safety mods |
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My understanding is that the proposed modifications will be phased in over a period of time - eg: within the next ten hours (operating time).
The million dollar question is how long it will take to manufacture the requisite parts. If memory serves me correctly Europa replaced the front pins for a longer version and this only took a matter of weeks to implement. A competent engineering outfit could knock out a couple of hunderd of these within a day.
My initial observation on the proposed wing modification is why the work access hole has to be made through the wing surface and not through the wing root rib. Admittedly it wont be quite as easy to tighten the locking nut but not in my view impossible. The access hole could be repaired with as many plies of bid as required (and more) without affecting the external appearance or requiring a repaint job.
Hopefully the PFA will hold fire on making the proposed mods mandatory till such time as the necessary parts become availabe.
After all many Europas have flown safely for many hours. This tragic incident has simply highlighted some design points which could do with improvement.
I personally believe that the current regime of checks should be sufficient to ensure we all fly safely till such time as the proposed mods can be implemented.
Carl Pattinson
G-LABS
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ptag.dev(at)tiscali.co.uk
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| Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:38 am Post subject: UK PFA news - Europa safety mods |
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Hi! David/Andy/Roger
Concerning Davids message below and the intentions re:- the aft wing lift pins being replaced and retained by internal nuts…….
IMHO to invade and so access the location would be less structural disturbance (also cosmetically easier) if the access was made through the wing to flap close out outboard of the main wing closeout/rib thereby preserving the integrity of the upper and lower wing surfaces.
Would you kindly ensure that this suggestion is addressed and calculated prior to finalising the access through the wing surface options?
Respectfully we were asked for contributions of ideas.
Regards
Bob Harrison G-PTAG (almost ready for flight test permit application with the 914 now installed)
Robt.C.Harrison
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-europa-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of David.Corbett
Sent: 06 July 2007 22:19
To: Europa Forum
Subject: UK PFA news - Europa safety mods
Wearing my UK PFA Executive Committee and Europa Club committee hats, I asked Francis Donaldson (PFA Chief Engineer, for those of you overseas who do not know) earlier this week if he could release a progress report on the proposed Europa factory/PFA modifications to be incorporated in UK Europae following the tragic accident to G-HOFC. You will see Francis’s reply below.
However, before you read it, I must ask you all to consider some other factors which Francis passed to me in a second e-mail, and confirmed by voicemail whilst I was at a funeral this afternoon.
1 We are all aware that UK AAIB are shortly to issue a Special Bulletin about the G-HOFC accident. Francis tells me that this Bulletin is not expected to give any firm conclusion about the accident – investigations are still ongoing into the very complex factors involved – and the Bulletin will basically only draw attention to the Flight Safety Bulletins issued by the PFA (see next paragraph). If the AAIB Bulletin reports as normal “Special’s” do, I hope that we will at least be told publicly the scale of the damage/destruction that occurred to G-HOFC, even if no conclusions can yet be given.
2 Some Europae, like mine, have passed the inspections required by UK Europa Flight Safety Bulletins 006 and 007, but are grounded because the tailplane pip pin recesses have not been built to the dimensions in the build manual – in many cases, the dimensions are smaller, especially around the joint between the recess and the upper skin. Owners such as myself are obviously frustrated that we cannot fly but, quite understandably, Francis asks that those of us in a similar position to mine wait for the tailplane pip pin mod to come out, and do not chase PFA Engineering for individual special attention. As we can all appreciate, PFA Engineering have been severely overloaded by the investigations, and the resulting mod design work involved, that arises from this accident, and other PFA aircraft types are suffering as a result of these pressures on PFA Engineering. This situation has not been helped by the sad loss, to a job in Australia, of our recent and excellent recruit to the engineering team, Kerry Ashcroft; so PFA are short of an engineer again.
3 The proposed mods (outlined below) are currently with Europa (2004) Ltd being formatted. There will, of course, be a lead time on the supply of some mod kit parts – especially the longer wing rear pins required for Classic aircraft. I will have a discussion with Roger or John early next week to see whether they are yet prepared to go public as to the timescale for issuing the mod kits.
[quote][b]
| | - The Matronics Europa-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?Europa-List |
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