ࡱ>    !"#$%&'()*+,Root EntryZ O2@♺-@CONTENTS TCompObjVSPELLINGing tore from the frame and two of the three struts which attached to the tail section tore free. The wing was still attached to the aircraft by the cables, but a witness said it was atop the right wing. When the two struts to the tail section broke, one went through my brand new 48 maple prop and shut off the engine. Now all was silent except for the rushing wind and with nothing left to fly I knew there was no option other than death when I reached the ground. Earth was spinning closer and I didn t want to see myself hit so I closed my eyes and tried to interrupt the inclination to judge when I would reach the ground, figuring I would hit and die before I felt anything. Once the visual input was gone I noticed I was hyperventilating. I experienced the most profound loneliness imaginable not being able to apologize to my son who was at the strip watching me fall to my death, or to tell my kids goodbye and that I loved them. I dropped into brush growing next to the driveway of Gene and Pat Moore that was about 7 - 8 high. I believe I was falling left side down with my feet lower than my hips, but when I hit the brush my torso overtook my feet and I hit the ground mostly with my left shoulder and the left half of my back. My son told me that the best he could tell, there was a stump with three large shoots growing out that I came down onto which acted as a kind of air bag. I had numerous broken ribs, a bruised lung, and third degree (complete) clavicular separation. There were two reddened areas, one on my forehead and one by my left temple from the action inside my helmet (and the chin piece on my helmet was broken). Right after I hit I thought my body was dead but my head was still alive from being in the helmet, but when the blood in my head dieCHNKWKS TTEXTTEXT(BFDPPFDPPFFDPCFDPCHSTSHSTSHJSTSHSTSHJ2SYIDSYIDPJSGP SGP dJINK INK hJBTEPPLC lJBTECPLC JFONTFONTJ<STRSPLC J:PRNTWNPRK|FRAMFRAMQTITLTITLR>DOP DOP TRen the two struts to the tail section broke, oneI bought a Chicken Hawk ultralight from a co-worker, took some flying lessons, did some crow-hops and soloed August 12, 1990. (1) August 19, 1990 was a hot, humid Sunday and my son, Dave, and I went to Harold Chadwick s airstrip in Ottsville, PA, where I kept the aircraft. We installed a skid at the rear of the main frame to avoid digging the grass when I flared, did a preflight and I took off. The strip is surrounded by trees, and when I got above the treetops I observed the sky to the east over the Delaware River was black with an approaching storm. Having overshot the runway once the week before, I did what I felt was prudent (which probably wasn t) and climbed full power downwind (toward the storm) until I was probably a mile from the strip and about 1,200 feet AGL. I turned base and then final at about 50 mph indicated on my Hall s ASI. Immediately following the turn I encountered a severe downdraft. Ed, another pilot who also flew from Chadwick, saw me turn to go in and witnessed my drop, which he estimated to be about 30 feet. When I bottomed out I felt something pop, as if you pulled the string on a balloon and left it pop back. (2) Then I realized there was no pressure on the stick. Although the plane was still flying I figured I was a dead man being 1,200 in the air with no control of the aircraft. Because the plane was banked and turning right my natural response was still to try to control it by inputting left aileron, but when I did the plane went into a nose-dive. It felt like I went over a dam in a boat. (3) I did what I learned when taking lessons and neutralized the controls and hit the rudder opposite the way I was spinning, but what I didn t do was pull the power off. The plane leveled but I was going so fast that the left wd it would be over. The area is pretty rugged and my son jumped into his car and was trying to find me. In the meantime, Ed, who saw me turn and drop but not crash, landed. They told him at the strip that  Kulpie went in , so he took off and flew back to where he last saw me and located me on the ground. He got Dave on the CB, told him to go back to Chadwick, which he did, and then led him to the wreckage from the air by CB. When he arrived the EMTs almost had me cut from the wreckage. Needless to say his eyes were like saucers when he learned I was alive. One of the EMT s mother got in touch with me and told me that when 2. her son ran up to me to attempt to bring me back to life, I greeted him (I still expected to die and sure was glad to see the EMTs!!!) and his mother said he told her he almost wet his pants. I spent four days in the Doylestown Hospital and the broken ribs healed in the customary 8 weeks, but the shoulder and the soft tissue injuries from the crushing of my left torso took the better part of a year to level out. The only physical evidence now is a small scar on my ankle, a scar on my abdomen where they made an incision, filled my gut with fluid and sucked it back out to check for internal injuries, and the clavicle at my left shoulder protrudes and my shoulder sags a bit. (1) The Chicken Hawk was built by Pacific Aviation from Bellingham, WA. It was a tricycle, had single surface wings with kingpost and cables, three axis control and was powered by a 277 Rotax. (2) When the plane hit the bottom of the downdraft, the upward force upon the ailerons sheared both aileron cables at the stick. Marine push-pull cables were used by the manufacturer and the ends had rods which had adjusting nuts. The manufacturer of the cables was Teleflex. Their plant was about 3 miles from where I lived in Lansdale, PA at the time, and one of the engineers came to my house to inspect the wreckage. He informed me that the cables are meant only for boats and definitely not aircraft. The threads on the adjusting rod are machine cut and the thread root is a sharp  V which is a weak point from where it fractured, similar to a crack from a chip on the edge of a pane of glass. He told me that aircraft threads would be rolled in with a rounded root. He also showed me that the fractured rod end of the one aileron cable was polished halfway through, indicating that the aircraft was being flown with one cable already fractured, but not completely through. (3) My biggest question as I ran through everything a hundred times in my mind in the hospital was why I suddenly went into a nose dive. What I discovered when I checked the wreckage is that with the two rudder cables attached to the stick from the rear and the aileron cables attached from each side, the stick was stable. However, when both aileron cables severed, the stick only had the two elevator cables attached parallel from the rear to hold it true, and it then tended to twist when it was moved. As a consequence, when I had attempted to level the aircraft (probably pretty forcefully since it was my final stab at staying alive) the stick twisted and left aileron became down elevator. You can see the setup in one of the enclosed pictures and you can also see the shiny half of the fracture. Pictures: 1 & 2 - Chicken Hawk before 3 & 4 - Chicken Hawk after (with me in mega pain 3 days after being released from the hospital) 5 - What broke: A: the elevator cables attached to the stick, B: the receiver for the right aileron cable still attached to the stick, C: the left aileron cable receiver attached to the stick but flipped up on top of the right end so the cable end is visible. The receivers are identical to the elevator cable receivers, which are more clearly shown with the cables still attached. D: the right aileron cable with the threaded end and lock nut visible, E: the left aileron cable, 6 - The brush I crashed into with a hole from the EMT s cutting it to extricate me (and me in pain) 7 - Aerial view; Moore s house in center, brush along driveway to right, hole in brush across driveway from red shed. 8 - Picnic BJ Phillips attended a year later. Significant people: 2nd from left, Dave, my son; man standing with blue and yellow, Ed, who led Dave to me from air; woman to his right, my doctor s wife; fellow in white shirt, EMT who almost wet himself; three people in front of doctor s wife, Pat (in yellow), Gene (sitting) and Ron (blue hat, standing) Moore on whose property I crashed; my daughter, Jenn, is sitting on a bench with a fellow who, I think, was another EMT. Incidentally, Harold Chadwick, who owned the airstrip I flew from, was killed in a head-on crash, and Gene Moore, who owned the property where I landed, died as a result of rejection from an organ transplant. There s a message there, you know! s to the tail section broke, one went through thmy bandrand new 48 maple probp and shut ut off the engine. You can also see the shiny half of the fracture.. ,only had the two elevator cables attached parallel from the rear ,to hold i."$$&D F <>fh,.f!h!###$$^(`()1778>88<=~>6B8B$D&D(D(2"'( ) @S ? ?(D"  "  ,7,7 " " tt(DF(DH(,7Times New Roman! " " "XXFw8Canon iP5200 ߁ od LetterBJDM 0VT$m,`Oj,`OjVT$m,v`Oj,v,v`OjXXDRAFTSample 1' dVT$mVT$m@  VT$m   Canon iP5200 ߁ od Letter2| winspoolCanon iP5200USB001F"\""V"$c"` "``""A."@"\""V"$c"` "``"."Account of Events 8.7.2006.wps"p"pp (" lf; three people in front of doctor s wife, Pat (in yellow), Gene (sitting) and Ron (blue hat, standing) Moore on whose property I crashed; my daughter, Jenn, is sitting on a bench with a fellow who, Z O2Quill96 Story Group Class9qyyy y yyGyLy{yyyy