Team Rocket Blog

Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin

2011-01-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL AIRWORTHINESS
INFORMATION BULLETIN
SAIB: CE-11-17
SUBJ: Instruments Date: January 18, 2011
This is information only. Recommendations aren’t mandatory.
Introduction
This Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin informs you of an airworthiness concern that is relevant to all airplanes certificated under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) part 23, as well as those certificated under the previous Civil Air Regulations (CAR) part 3. This information is also relevant to any special light-sport category airplanes (S-LSA), experimental lightsport airplanes (E-LSA), and experimental amateur-built airplanes.
At this time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined that this airworthiness concern is not an unsafe condition that would warrant airworthiness directive (AD) action under 14 CFR part 39.
Background
On November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, crashed shortly after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The crash killed all 260 people aboard and 5 people on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined “the probable cause of this accident was the in-flight separation of the vertical stabilizer as a result of the loads beyond ultimate design loads that were created by the first officer’s unnecessary and excessive rudder pedal inputs.” As a result of this accident and subsequent investigation, it was revealed that many pilots have a misunderstanding of what the design maneuvering velocity (speed), VA, represents. Many pilots believe that as long as the airplane is at or below this maneuvering speed, they can make any control inputs they desire without any risk of harm to the airplane. This is not true.
The design maneuvering speed (VA) is the speed below which you can move a single flight control, one time, to its full deflection, for one axis of airplane rotation only (pitch, roll or yaw), in smooth air, without risk of damage to the airplane. Even though the accident discussed above is a part 25 airplane, VA is applicable to part 23, CAR 3, and LSA airplanes. Also, even though experimental airplanes may not have a published VA , they will still have some maximum maneuvering speed associated with the maximum structural design loads. Therefore, the pilot should be aware of what speed this is, and adhere to the guidance herein. The regulations governing the design strength requirements for airplane structure require adequate strength for full control deflection (below VA). However, they do not require the manufacturer to make the airplane strong enough to withstand full control input followed by a full control input in the opposite direction, even below VA. Neither do they require the manufacturer to design the airplane for more than one simultaneous full control input such as full ailerons with full elevator and/or rudder.
VA, as published in the airplane flight manual (AFM) or pilot’s operating handbook (POH), is valid for operation at the gross weight stated, which is typically at max gross weight. It is especially important to note that VA decreases as the airplane weight decreases. At first, this may seem counter intuitive. All pilots understand that when the airplane is subjected to an external force, such as the 2 aerodynamic force from a control surface, the airplane responds by accelerating (rotational acceleration) about one of the airplane’s axes. This was stated many years ago in Newton’s Second Law of Motion. The law states that when an object of mass ‘m’ is acted upon by a force ‘F’, it will undergo acceleration ‘a’ in the same direction as the force. More simply stated in the widely known equation “F = ma”, which can be rewritten as “a = F/m”. Rewritten this way, it is clear for a given control force ‘F’, as the airplane weight ‘m’ decrezses then the acceleration ‘a’ will increase. This higher acceleration gives rise to higher loads on the airplane structure. Therefore, as the airplane weight decreases, the allowable maneuvering speed must also decrease, to ensure that the airframe is not damaged. Pilots may remember from their written exam that VA-NEW = VA √ (WNEW/WMAX-GROSS) as the way to calculate the corrected (new) maneuvering speed due to operating at a weight less than the maximum gross weight. NOTE: This formula is for calculating the VA change about the pitch axis; however, it can be used for all axes.
Recommendations
The FAA wants to clarify that operators should know what the maneuvering speed is and to caution pilots on what to avoid by adhering to the information described above and contained in the regulations. We recommend the following for maneuvering at, or even below, VA:
DO NOT apply a full deflection of a control, followed immediately by a full deflection in the
opposite direction.
DO NOT apply full multiple control inputs simultaneously; i.e., pitch, roll and yaw
simultaneously, or in any combination thereof, even if you are below VA.
Reduce VA when operating below gross weight, using the following formula:
VA-NEW = VA √ (WNEW/WMAX-GROSS)
For Further Information Contact
Mark James, Aerospace Engineer, 901 Locust, Room 301, Kansas City, MO 64106;
phone: (816) 329-4137; fax: (816) 329-4090; email: mark.james@faa.gov.

Auusie F1 Close to Flying

2010-08-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

Sam and Rohan started the engine on the F1 this week, in its final set up to be able
to test fly the beast. A couple good weeks work and we could see it flying around
the skies here in Temora

37 Ship Formation, Oshkosh 2009

2009-08-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

37 Ship Oshkosh Bullet Camera from Echo 1 Kahuna Tuesday

Oshkosh 2009 - Shoot by Peashooter

2009-07-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

Wright Brothers demonstrating their plane in Italy in 1909

2009-05-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

This is pretty incredible This is historic! The Wright Brothers in Italy in 1909...

Here is a film clip from the Austrian archives about the Wright Brothers demonstrating their plane in Italy in 1909. What is even more fantastic is there was an on-board camera on the Wright plane and the last part of this film shows it. It's crystal clear. If you haven't seen it, you must see this important film. Wilbur Wright is at the controls on both of the flights

www.europafilmtreasures.eu/PY/322/fiche_technique.htm?ID=322

After opening the site scroll down & click ”See the film”
You can enlarge it to full screen by clicking on the right end of the control bar at the bottom of the film. There are Links to information about the film.

Dick Johnson & Danny Melnik - First flights

2009-05-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Dick and Danny on both their first flights, There where so
many good photos, I posted all of them in the TR photo album where you
can get to see both their air planes.

Bill Kehn - The Paint Jobs Just Keep Coming

2009-04-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

You can see why Bill is smiling, In the email i got with the pic's, Bill made me add
a big thanks to Tom Martin for the help while building, Well, we know Bill got great
help there. Good work

Wayne Loeber - Paint and New Wings

2009-03-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

This F1 started out life as a Sport wing and then desided to get some
plastic surgery well it came out of pre op ok and all looks well

Reeb Somberg

2009-03-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all
have a look at these, i have seen the full res pictures and im sorry i can
reproduce that for you to get the full quality of what this fantastic plane
looks like.
Great job Reed

Another F1 Down Under Getting Closer

2009-03-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Trevor is getting a lot closer with his F1 Evo, with a lot of fiber glass
to finish off, Trevor now has got to the good stuff
(Perth, Western Australia)

Aussie F1 Takes To The Skies

2009-02-03T00:30:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Ron Graham,
That makes Ron the 3rd sports wing to fly down under.
There is another Evo very close to its first flight to

Aussie F1's Flying
1 Evo F1
3 Sport Wing F1 (1 shipped over from USA)
1 Harmon Rocket

Congratulations Chris Kniebes

2009-02-03T00:28:00.000-08:00

One of a couple first flights this week
Good work chris

Congratulations Geroge Fisher

2009-01-24T21:50:00.000-08:00

Good work Geroge, His first flight was Jan 4th.

550 Nearly ready to fly

2009-01-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Scammed some photos this week, more to come soon
First flight not that far away

Some F1's Just In The Air

2009-01-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

Dick & Carol Johnson's F1

Mike Royall's F1

Merry Christmas

2008-12-22T19:32:00.000-08:00

Merry christmas and happy new year for,
from all at Team Rocket

What a new paint scheme

2008-06-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Wow looks good

Aussie F1 just about to fly

2008-06-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks Ron Graham has been busy finishing the final
work of his F1, After a taxi test at BK airport and an inspection, only job to
do now is to paint , if he can wait that long.

The Cowl !!!!!

2008-03-25T04:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a early look at some cowl photos that will be used for the IO-550
more shortly

Jeff Deuchar

2008-02-27T01:37:00.001-08:00

What a paint job !!!!

Ride along with warbird pilot Doug Rozendaal

2008-02-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

Have a look at this great video of Doug Rozendaal in the
factory F1, that he now owns .
You also can see some more great video links from the video page

Danny Melnik "Congratulations"

2008-01-29T23:48:00.000-08:00

N14ZM flew for the first time this morning with Bob Gross at the controls.
Many thanks to all who helped over the last 6+ years to make this happen
and many, many thanks to Bob.

The pics are courtesy of Rich Uravitch

Bob giving the big thumbs up !!

The DocThrock flies

2007-12-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

Congratilations Matt Throckmorton, Matt got Airbourne friday 14 dec.
Matt has some great pics and videos, you can check them out on his
web site .

Congratulations Tom Russell

2007-11-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

Tom Russell's Sport wing F1
(SN 098) flew yesterday! Yeah baby!

Not Recommended in your F1

2007-10-30T03:21:00.000-07:00

This is not recommended in your F1, with out a parachute !!!