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Accidental Destruction Anti-Splat

PerfTech

Well Known Member
.... Well I hate to admit this, but today we pretty much put the supreme test on our Anti-Splat-Aero Nose Job, and for that matter all the landing gear on my airplane. I have been working with a very good friend who is building an RV that is 95% or more completed. He anticipates it's completion in about 60 days or so. I have been using my airplane to help him build some hours and get him familiar with the RVs. He is a great guy, learns quickly and until today all has gone very well. Today we went out for a couple of hours airport hopping and doing some touch and goes at each destination. after three of them at the same airport he decided to do one more before returning to my home airport. each was consecutively better so, I was very relaxed and confident that his next one would be perfect. We came across the numbers a little slow and the decent was far to rapid. He tried to check it and over did it pitching the nose up too high resulting in a stall that dropped us on from about ten feet or so. This was a very violent hit that resulted in a considerable amount of damage to my airplane. The blame lies squarely with me, as it was my responsibility to fix the problem before it escalated to the point of no return. I guess I am not instructor material. The hit was very hard at 5 1/2 gs. as revealed by my meter in the photo below.
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.... This 5 1/2 gs translates (With the loading we had) to approximately 9,900 lb on the three gear legs. The loads were relatively evenly spaced, as we hit almost flat.This being said it is understandable having the damage we experienced and one would expect even more. It destroyed all three wheel pants and all intersection fairings top and bottom. Many screws were literally pulled through the glass and all were cracked and ground off. The mains are bent a little as the plane sits about an inch or two lower on them now.
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.... I carry 50 psi is my nose wheel and 35 psi in the mains. The vertical impact and load was so great that it compressed the tires to the ground and bent the nose wheel out at the point of contact. This destroyed the tire, tube, wheel and bent the fork.
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.... The mains suffered damage to the tires and the impact compressed them to the ground as well, allowing the brake rotors to take a violent hit, bending and destroying them as well.
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.... The up side to this, if there is one, would be we walked away with bruised egos, feeling a little stupid and humbled with an airplane that is repairable. The Nose Job performed flawlessly, without a scratch and kept the nose gear in perfect tact. had it collapsed, I would have lost at best a $10,000 propeller, a cowl assembly and been looking at an engine tear down and repair. At worst a possible flip over and total loss. I am very impressed with this, and can hardly believe all the damages to everything else, with none to the nose gear leg. You would expect the nose gear to be the first to fail given the history of them when stressed.
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... I wanted to share this with the forum to perhaps help someone else from this type of incident. I would have bet money that I was exempt from this type of accident and this only happens to the other guy. Well I stand corrected. Cheers, Allan...:eek:
 
Sorry for you mishap Allan. Thanks for "manning up" and sharing so that we all might learn.

Hopefully you have that bird fixed up as good as new soon.
 
You said it best that the best part is that all you bruised is your ego. The airplane can be fixed, and with your skills I'm sure you will find even more improvements for the RV's from this experience. I am amazed at the 5.5 g's, I never would expect it to be that high from a 10 foot drop.

Did you know immediately the extent of the damage? As in, were the tires flat, real bad vibrations, or did all seem normal till you shutdown?

Glad you both are ok, how's your friend? Hopefully he is using it as a learning experience and is not wanting to sell off his project after this, airplanes can always be fixed.
 
Thank you for sharing the details of this sad mishap, Allan. I don't think I ever would have considered flying my RV (someday) without transition training first, but your story and all the advocacy here is so helpful for getting the message out. Glad you're both okay.

About the stall: do you have an AOA system?

--
Stephen
 
Sympathies Allan...

Worth speaking to Vans since a direct "heavy landing" + 'g' reading they should be able to help on what needs checking. I am aware of an RV-8 that did 4 'g' I think, and the gear legs bent. Vans were quite clear they are designed to bend at 3g to protect the airframe, and that all worked as design.

Regarding:
I guess I am not instructor material
one of the hardest things as an instructor is how far you let "Bloggs" (as the student was termed in the RAF!) go before intervening. And you did not always get it right then. In the instructing I do now, on ex-RAF Jets, we have rule about not letting passengers / non-type qualified pilots handle the controls below 1000' except with an instructor. A bit of a hard rule, but it does enable the pilot to not cause offence to someone apparently competent, but you'll only find out too late :(

Hopefully nothing damaged above the gear legs ;)
 
Thanks

Thanks for the heads-up Allan.

It's hard to keep up with students sometimes and I've had around 80 trainees when I had my -6A...yes, it's hard on airplanes...one reason I've stopped.

Best,
 
Glad to hear all everyone walked away intact. Airplanes can always be repaired or replaced. I am going to let my wife read your "confession" because she can't understand why I scream at her when I think she is getting too slow on final. I am NOT good instructor material because I react so negatively towards her when she makes what "I think" is an error. I was told that when I fly with her to only let the plane get to the point I think it is going to be unsafe and then say "I got it." I just am not sure when that point is reached. Newbies in RV's just don't seem to react quick enough when things start to go wrong. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
Glad to hear all everyone walked away intact. Airplanes can always be repaired or replaced. I am going to let my wife read your "confession" because she can't understand why I scream at her when I think she is getting too slow on final. I am NOT good instructor material because I react so negatively towards her when she makes what "I think" is an error. I was told that when I fly with her to only let the plane get to the point I think it is going to be unsafe and then say "I got it." I just am not sure when that point is reached. Newbies in RV's just don't seem to react quick enough when things start to go wrong. Just my 2 cents worth.

There's a lot of truth to the old adage that spouses should not try to teach spouses ANYthing...

My wife told me the other day that she wanted to learn to fly too - but half a heartbeat later she spun around and stuck a finger in my face saying "But YOU'RE not teaching me!" :p


In any case - sorry about the damage story, it can be repaired. Glad to see the nose mod worked as well as it did!
 
Thanks for the lesson Alan

Alan thanks for sharing. Recently I had a rider a good pilot I let him fly a lot and do some landings. Several times I held my finger as stick travel limiter. He said to me at the end that RVs are not for training...
 
What a tough lesson Allan but you seem to be handling it incredibly well. My hat is off to you. I'm not sure I would be thinking so rationally about the whole incident.
 
Sorry

Hey Allan,

Sorry to hear about the mishap. Glad you're both OK and that there was (hopefully) not more damage.

I have a question re: the nose gear. Do you think the forces on that gear were to bend it UP and not BACK? In which case, did the nose job do anything?

Keep up all the good work; best of luck with the repairs.

Tom
 
I have a question re: the nose gear. Do you think the forces on that gear were to bend it UP and not BACK? In which case, did the nose job do anything?

What I was thinking also. Seems the loading in the stall/drop was basically opposite the load the unit is designed to deal with.

All that aside, glad you are OK, and the plane is repairable.
 
You said it best that the best part is that all you bruised is your ego. The airplane can be fixed, and with your skills I'm sure you will find even more improvements for the RV's from this experience. I am amazed at the 5.5 g's, I never would expect it to be that high from a 10 foot drop.

Did you know immediately the extent of the damage? As in, were the tires flat, real bad vibrations, or did all seem normal till you shutdown?

Glad you both are ok, how's your friend? Hopefully he is using it as a learning experience and is not wanting to sell off his project after this, airplanes can always be fixed.

This was immediately apparent that the outcome was not going to be good. The roll out was very short as the initial hit absorbed a tremendous amount of the energy. We left a trail of fiberglass and debris for about 75 ft. I could feel the nose wheel thumping and shaking as it was way out of round and the fork was bent thus causing a violent shimmy. The 10 ft drop is a guess and could have been higher. It all occurred so fast that I was overloaded with input and helplessness. Once things escalated to this stage we were just along for the ride. We had a large audience as it was a display day at their airport (Adding to our embarrassment) and the witnesses came over to check it out. The hit was violent enough that it knocked my friends hand off the throttle and accidentally activated the smoke system. This caused a giant smoke cloud convincing the onlookers we were on fire. Wish I dad a video of the fiasco.
My friend is OK and he felt horrible about it all but it really wasn't his fault. These things happen when learning. The last thing I would want is to discourage him or set back his project. It will all work out in the end. Allan...:eek:
 
Do you think the forces on that gear were to bend it UP and not BACK? In which case, did the nose job do anything?

What I was thinking also. Seems the loading in the stall/drop was basically opposite the load the unit is designed to deal with.

I would like to see some photos of the nose wheel pant and skid. I'm wondering what kind of forces the nose gear experienced.
 
Hey Allan,

Sorry to hear about the mishap. Glad you're both OK and that there was (hopefully) not more damage.

I have a question re: the nose gear. Do you think the forces on that gear were to bend it UP and not BACK? In which case, did the nose job do anything?

Keep up all the good work; best of luck with the repairs.

Tom

... The forces were up and back as well. Keep in mind that they are in part the same thing. Because the fork extends backwards it acts as a 8" leaver arm trying to bent the gear and the "Nose Job" at the attach point. The higher the load trying to push the assembly up, the greater the load trying to bend it back. In this instance, the gear leg formed into an S shape with the brace controlling the maximum radius at the bottom of the S. The brace contacted the gear leg along it's entire length and left witness marks showing it very well. The other evidence of this rolling / bending action is the front of the nose wheel pant is ground off. Calling on the tests we have performed in the past, I am absolutely positive the nose gear would have failed were it not for the Nose Job. Thanks, Allan...:eek:
 
Hopefully you make up for the loss with additional sales of your clever invention Allen.

If this isn't proof on top of the existing proof that the anti-splat works well, I don't know if its possible to prove it further.
 
I would like to see some photos of the nose wheel pant and skid. I'm wondering what kind of forces the nose gear experienced.

... I will try an post more photos if I see anything pertinent or interesting as I look things over more closely.
...Also, thank you all for the kind words and such. Allan...:)
 
I am going to let my wife read your "confession" because she can't understand why I scream at her when I think she is getting too slow on final. I am NOT good instructor material because I react so negatively towards her when she makes what "I think" is an error. I was told that when I fly with her to only let the plane get to the point I think it is going to be unsafe and then say "I got it." I just am not sure when that point is reached.

When she makes you squirm in your seat is when you say nicely "I've got it". Not to change course from the hard landing topic, but don't scream or yell at her when things start to go astray; it's not a good learning environment and with a spouse, will just open things up to a nasty argument. Yelling or screaming is just not a good way to get your point across with a student, any student, spouse or not.
 
Allan,

Thanks for sharing. Did your nose job include the Lip-Skid device that plugs into the bottom of the nose gear leg? If so, when the wheel fork bent did the Lip-Skid contact the runway and help to save the nose gear leg?

John
 
It's not the fall...

... but the sudden stop, as the saying goes. For the poster who expressed surprise that a 10' drop could do that much damage, here is a summary of the physics (what else would you expect a mechanical engineer to do?).

1. D = Vend X Vend/2a this assumes vertical velocity = 0 at the start of the drop and g = 32.2 ft/sec/sec.

2. Using 10' for D, the vertical impact speed with the runway works out to 25.4 ft/sec = 17.3 mph

3. Calculating the distance in which the CG of the aircraft was arrested vertically is trickier, because the G-meter only measures peak, not average G. 5.5 G's is 177ft/sec/sec. Using peak G in the same formula gives a vertical stopping distance of about 1.8'. Using an average value about 2/3rds of peak gives a vertical stopping distance of about 2.7'.

This little exercise confirms what Allan said - that it was a heck of squash. that amount of stopping distance is way beyond the elastic limit of the landing gear.

I believe certificated planes have to pass a drop test as part of their certification. Perhaps some of the aero engineers can chime in here.

Years ago, I worked on a military vehicle program where one of the criteria was a vertical drop that simulated a LAPES (low altitude parachute extraction). For those unfamiliar with the maneuver, the cargo plane is supposed to fly low and slow over the "runway" and the palletized vehicle is jerked out the rear cargo door by a drogue chute. I always wondered how "low and slow" a military pilot would be willing to fly with someone shooting at the aircraft.

Larry Tompkins
544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground, WA
 
...No AOA system but in this instance I don't think it would have benefited us. Allan

I disagree...... Since you were not feeling the controls get mushy, watching the AOA as you also watch the progress of the flight could have given you that edge you needed to push to save the plane.

Was this a result of a long float?

Due to the fact that you were testing your product, your entire repair is a business deduction.........:D
 
Allan... I'm sorry to hear about the mishap. Glad nobody got hurt.

I have had a few airline pilots land my plane, and they tend to flare quite high for obvious reasons!

Jae
 
I disagree...... Since you were not feeling the controls get mushy, watching the AOA as you also watch the progress of the flight could have given you that edge you needed to push to save the plane.

Was this a result of a long float?

Due to the fact that you were testing your product, your entire repair is a business deduction.........:D

.... Actually the controls didn't or don,t get mushy at the speed we were traveling. It has lots of elevator authority. The wing was allowing the rapid decent. When i said to check the decent, I meant with power, not elevator. The wing on the 9 will respond instantly with an angle of attack change and takes only a very little, not a giant input, thus causing the stall. Once the stall occurred at that angle there was no push, pull, add power or pray that would effect the outcome. There was no float at all, just a radical pitch change and stall. Thanks for the tax advise, I forgot about that! Allan..:p
 
The hit was violent enough that it knocked my friends hand off the throttle and accidentally activated the smoke system. This caused a giant smoke cloud convincing the onlookers we were on fire.

Gosh this made me LOL. Just the topping on the Cake of Shame :D
 
Glad you are OK

And that the damage was not worse. Our 7a is easy to land until you get it slow and like your 9, it has plenty of elevator to pitch the nose way up, to basically just stop and fall. Curious, where the main gear legs bent at?

Thanks for sharing.
 
I often see people mentioning "watching the AOA display." I was concerned about seeing the Dynon AOA display on my Skyview. But then I flew with it. The higher the AOA, the faster-pitched the beeping is in the headset. Do it a few times at altitude all the way to stall to calibrate the sound and display to your brain. I never even look down at that indicator on the screen on final approach anymore, because the beeping sound is so useful!!! You can get it beeping fast (and at an airspeed you are comfortable with based on winds) while still high, then ride that beeping rate all the way down with pitch, keeping your eyes on the runway all the time and adjusting power as needed (usually all the way off on the -12). I am using a 1260 foot strip so slow approaches and precision touchdown placement are a must!

My RV12 also has a stall indicator. I understand many RVs do not. AOA with AUDIBLE is the thing to have! There is no way you could have avoided paying attention to that on final!
 
Allan... I'm sorry to hear about the mishap. Glad nobody got hurt.

I have had a few airline pilots land my plane, and they tend to flare quite high for obvious reasons!

Hi Jae,

I had the exact same experience letting a local airline pilot fly.
 
RV 4 damage (HARD LANDING)

Many years ago I did a hard landing in my RV 4. My G-meter indicated 3.5 G's. The runway was grass and very short and up hill.

Damage report;
Both landing gear bent
Firewall bent
Engine mount bent
Both CS prop blades bent

The point of this post is that A Model RV's fortunately can take a lot harder landing than tail dragger RV's except for maybe the 8.

Steve "The Builders Coach"
 
Allan - so sorry about your mishap but glad everyone is OK. I hope you sell a ton of nose gear parts based on your experience- enough to pay for the repairs. I know I'll be buying one, wow!

Let us know if you find any other damage. I'd be curious about the weldments that all 3 gear attach to.
 
I often see people mentioning "watching the AOA display." I was concerned about seeing the Dynon AOA display on my Skyview. But then I flew with it. The higher the AOA, the faster-pitched the beeping is in the headset. Do it a few times at altitude all the way to stall to calibrate the sound and display to your brain. I never even look down at that indicator on the screen on final approach anymore, because the beeping sound is so useful!!! You can get it beeping fast (and at an airspeed you are comfortable with based on winds) while still high, then ride that beeping rate all the way down with pitch, keeping your eyes on the runway all the time and adjusting power as needed (usually all the way off on the -12). I am using a 1260 foot strip so slow approaches and precision touchdown placement are a must!

My RV12 also has a stall indicator. I understand many RVs do not. AOA with AUDIBLE is the thing to have! There is no way you could have avoided paying attention to that on final!


There have been two fatal RV accidents in the last year where I think AOA would have prevented the accidents. There is no need to be looking down at the indicator. I know where I get the aural warning from my AOA system. If I am 10 feet in the air and "Angle Angle Push" comes on it says to me "Go Around". There is plenty of control authority at that point to make a safe go around. I do expect to hear the warning on any 3 point landing but I know that it should be coming on with the aircraft inches above the runway. The dynon system mentioned above sounds even better in some regards then the system I have however I do like the indicator out of the display area in the upper left corner of the instrument panel.
I have noticed since coming on this forum there is a great deal of anti AOA feeling. Its a tremendous safety tool to have in your hip pocket. Hopefully you never need it but when you really need it your family may be very glad you had it installed.

George
 
5.5Gs v 4.5Gs

"... This 5 1/2 gs translates (With the loading we had) to approximately 9,900 lb on the three gear legs..."


Allan, sorry to hear about the damage to your plane. However, it looks like the landing impact was actually 4.5Gs, as 1G is the base unit to start from. A plane sitting on the deck or in normal level flight is at 1G. So the total weight on the gear at impact would be 4.5 X the weight of the plane at that time. Regardless, it was a heck of a pounding for you guys and the plane to take. I'm glad you both didn't get hurt. The nose gear attachment you developed looks like a very good piece of gear.
 
"... This 5 1/2 gs translates (With the loading we had) to approximately 9,900 lb on the three gear legs..."


Allan, sorry to hear about the damage to your plane. However, it looks like the landing impact was actually 4.5Gs, as 1G is the base unit to start from. A plane sitting on the deck or in normal level flight is at 1G. So the total weight on the gear at impact would be 4.5 X the weight of the plane at that time. Regardless, it was a heck of a pounding for you guys and the plane to take. I'm glad you both didn't get hurt. The nose gear attachment you developed looks like a very good piece of gear.

Incorrect. When A plane sitting on the ground with 1G on it the gear is supporting weight of the plane, which in this case was 1800lb. 5.5G is 5.5 times the amount of 1G which would = 9900 lb.

Skylor
 
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I believe certificated planes have to pass a drop test as part of their certification. Perhaps some of the aero engineers can chime in here.

from FAR 23.723 Shock absorption tests
(b) The landing gear may not fail, but may yield, in a test showing its reserve energy absorption capacity, simulating a descent velocity of 1.2 times the limit descent velocity, assuming wing lift equal to the weight of the airplane.

and from FAR 23.725 Limit drop tests.(a) If compliance with ? 23.723(a) is shown by free drop tests, these tests must be made on the complete airplane, or on units consisting of wheel, tire, and shock absorber, in their proper relation, from free drop heights not less than those determined by the following formula:

h (inches)=3.6 ( W/S ) 1⁄2

However, the free drop height may not be less than 9.2 inches and need not be more than 18.7 inches.
 
Bummer

Allan, glad you guys are okay. That was a heck of a drop. It would see there would be much more damage but glad there wasn't.

Please let us know what the Engineers at the Mothership have to say about the structure.

Hang in there!!
 
Not quite right

... but the sudden stop, as the saying goes. For the poster who expressed surprise that a 10' drop could do that much damage, here is a summary of the physics (what else would you expect a mechanical engineer to do?).

1. D = Vend X Vend/2a this assumes vertical velocity = 0 at the start of the drop and g = 32.2 ft/sec/sec.

2. Using 10' for D, the vertical impact speed with the runway works out to 25.4 ft/sec = 17.3 mph

3. Calculating the distance in which the CG of the aircraft was arrested vertically is trickier, because the G-meter only measures peak, not average G. 5.5 G's is 177ft/sec/sec. Using peak G in the same formula gives a vertical stopping distance of about 1.8'. Using an average value about 2/3rds of peak gives a vertical stopping distance of about 2.7'.

This little exercise confirms what Allan said - that it was a heck of squash. that amount of stopping distance is way beyond the elastic limit of the landing gear.

I believe certificated planes have to pass a drop test as part of their certification. Perhaps some of the aero engineers can chime in here.

Years ago, I worked on a military vehicle program where one of the criteria was a vertical drop that simulated a LAPES (low altitude parachute extraction). For those unfamiliar with the maneuver, the cargo plane is supposed to fly low and slow over the "runway" and the palletized vehicle is jerked out the rear cargo door by a drogue chute. I always wondered how "low and slow" a military pilot would be willing to fly with someone shooting at the aircraft.

Larry Tompkins
544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground, WA

This analysis assumes a free-fall drop from zero starting velocity. That is not very representative, because even stalled wings create SOME lift. A free fall drop from 18 inches would probably bend the gear. A fully-stalled drop from 18 inches would not even squish the tires flat. Correctly predicting the impact velocity is pretty complicated. It would be easier to determine it by reverse-engineering the gear struts.
 
Nose gear bends up AND down.

Hey Allan,

Sorry to hear about the mishap. Glad you're both OK and that there was (hopefully) not more damage.

I have a question re: the nose gear. Do you think the forces on that gear were to bend it UP and not BACK? In which case, did the nose job do anything?

Keep up all the good work; best of luck with the repairs.

Tom

Lots of folks don't quite seem to understand yet -- sorry to sound frustrated, but with all the dialog about the nose gear, I would have hoped it was more clear:

Yes, the rear half of the nose gear strut bends up, BUT.......

Because the wheel is mounted in a fork that trails behind the nose gear strut, the portion of the nose gear strut that is forward of the wheel axle bends DOWN when the wheel is pushed up. The fork acts like a big lever, rotating the front portion of the strut downward and rearward. An easy analysis shows that the yield strength of this portion of the gear strut is reached before the forward end of the strut reaches the ground. The strut then bends down and aft until the end of the strut digs into the ground like a polevault pole.

This is the bending action that the brace prevents. No question in my mind this airplane would have gone on its back without that brace.
 
In addition to Steve's comments above, there is the action on the wheel bearings binding in a stock wheel setup, I suspect that Alan's plane had the bearing mod, which is going to lessen the tendency to roll the nose gear back/under.
 
Lots of folks don't quite seem to understand yet -- sorry to sound frustrated, but with all the dialog about the nose gear, I would have hoped it was more clear:

Yes, the rear half of the nose gear strut bends up, BUT.......

Because the wheel is mounted in a fork that trails behind the nose gear strut, the portion of the nose gear strut that is forward of the wheel axle bends DOWN when the wheel is pushed up. The fork acts like a big lever, rotating the front portion of the strut downward and rearward. An easy analysis shows that the yield strength of this portion of the gear strut is reached before the forward end of the strut reaches the ground. The strut then bends down and aft until the end of the strut digs into the ground like a polevault pole.

This is the bending action that the brace prevents. No question in my mind this airplane would have gone on its back without that brace.

You are correct sir - assuming the force vector was coming from a direction forward of the axle. If the vector is directly below or aft of the axle then the nose gear will bend up (see Allan's video on his website). I wasn't thinking about this like your typical incursion with the "gopher hole" (where the force would certainly be forward of the axle), but rather the airplane dropping in on all three wheels. In my opinion it's hard to say exactly what happened, and certainly the contact with the ground by the nose wheel was a factor. I do however agree with you that excessive forces forward of that axle could have been a disaster without the gear brace. Allan's comments that there were witness marks from the brace on the gear leg seems to support this.
 
Anti-splat

Alan
Glad you were not hurt.
I have discovered that RV's will "fall through the flair" if we get them too slow. I love my AFS AOA for that reason!

As to t he Anti-Splat brace.... I installed one this spring, as well as their
nose wheel bearing mod. I am impressed.

But if you did land flat as you describe, the nose job brace would not have come into play, as it is designed to prevent the nose gear from curling under the plane.

in any regard, I am glad it was no worse, and certainly a heads-up to all of us not to get too complacent the next time a gust pops us up a few feet in the flair.....

Jim
RV-9A
300+ hrs.
 
In order to make a nice "landing" as opposed to just an "arrival", one should flare with flair. :)

Bevan
 
bending curvature vs displacement

With the load perfectly vertical, the forward portion of the strut, ahead of the axle, bends DOWN. That is, it has downward curvature. It is probably true that the NET deflection of that part of the stut is still upward, since the portion of the strut behind the axle may bend up more than the amount of local downward deflection. But without the brace, that portion of the strut can and will reach yield in downward bending, and will very quickly curl under -- it doesn't matter that the whole thing may also be displaced upward.

You are correct sir - assuming the force vector was coming from a direction forward of the axle. If the vector is directly below or aft of the axle then the nose gear will bend up (see Allan's video on his website). I wasn't thinking about this like your typical incursion with the "gopher hole" (where the force would certainly be forward of the axle), but rather the airplane dropping in on all three wheels. In my opinion it's hard to say exactly what happened, and certainly the contact with the ground by the nose wheel was a factor. I do however agree with you that excessive forces forward of that axle could have been a disaster without the gear brace. Allan's comments that there were witness marks from the brace on the gear leg seems to support this.
 
Allen,
In about 1975, I was the ?flight instructor late with corrective action?. It was a winter day, with strong quartering winds and a slippery runway taxing my student pilots. After successfully working with 4 pre-solo students, I flew with a private pilot who was working toward his commercial certificate. I relaxed, and it bit me. Long story short, we ended up upside down in a snow bank right in front of the terminal on a Saturday afternoon. Naturally, all of the airport regulars were right there, as was someone from the local press. How embarrassing!! The C172 required an engine inspection, a new prop, some stringers replaced in the leading edge of both wings, and I believe a new antenna. Basically, at the time, it was $100 worth of parts and $900 labor, so it was classified as an accident. To add insult to injury, I had to take a recertification ride with a local FAA employee who really was not much fun.
In the 35+ years since then, I have flown and instructed in many flying machines from the Hughs 300 to the Boeing 777. I have always been upfront with insurance companies and chief pilots. When I tell them the details, they always laugh, and I have never lost an employment or insurance opportunity because of the accident.
I salute those who have never damaged a flying machine. However, the act of actually being in a flying machine that has been pushed outside its ability to fly while close to the ground is a learning experience all by itself.
Thank you for being up front about your problem, and for sharing with others. Don?t stop helping others get flying experience. You may not be an FAA CFI, but you ARE an instructor and a teacher. Keep at it!
Regards,
John Juergens
 
Consider the risks, too

Many if not most RV pilots are happy to let other pilots fly their aircraft. And that's a good thing, but not without risk. As I read my insurance policy it is pretty explicit, no one may pilot the plane but me. I would not be surprised that if I had an incident like this that they would deny coverage.
 
Ahh Man...

Alan,

Very sorry to hear/read about this. :( This will give you some time to install the new Roller Rocker Arms you just bought from us. :D Keep us up to date on the progress, looks like the plane handled things pretty well overall.
 
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