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@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@pfa.org.uk]
Sent: 06 July 2007 16:25
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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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
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