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Super Cub Structural Failure

Steve Pierce

BENEFACTOR
Graham, TX
I just watched Mike Patey's video on his decision to install a parachute and his interview with Jay who had a structural failure in a Super Cub. Curious to what failed, accident report etc.
 
Thanks, Steve. I saw that video last week and meant to ask the same question.


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Original builder cut large lightening holes in both spars. Rear spar failed at strut attach point during extreme turbulence from Sawtooths just north of Stanley. (holes visible in P’s video.)


*as I understand it.....
 
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Fatal I assume?

No actually, both survived with pretty serious injures, took some healing time but they are back to functional life.

One wing folded in flight, plane spiraled in hard.
 
So you cut holes to lighten, then add a parachute to make up for the increased risk of structural failure? Are ballistic parachutes that lightweight?
 
I went back and looked and see all the holes. Still like to see the wing and what exactly failed. Doesn't sell me on installing a parachute. To each his own I guess, there are a lot of what ifs in the world.
 
No actually, both survived with pretty serious injures, took some healing time but they are back to functional life.

One wing folded in flight, plane spiraled in hard.

spin it in... heard of many survivors of that....

one is a member here.... spin down after getting caught on top..... i rebuilt that plane many years later (it was flying for years after that incident... before the rebuild i did...)
 
I’m fortunate, I can always join Jenny Craig for a few pounds on the non-structural areas.
 
Personally I think Mike is installing a chute because of the extreme nature of experimental he is doing on Scrappy, and he’s getting older and perhaps more valuable to his family.
I looked for similar answers as Steve did after watching the video last week, and while Tom pointed out the large lightning holes in the spar, there seems to be no actual report of the failure, and NTSB didn’t travel to the scene? So aside from Fobjobs report we don’t have much to go on. I was wondering if only half of one wing folded.


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there seems to be no actual report of the failure, and NTSB didn’t travel to the scene? So aside from Fobjobs report we don’t have much to go on. I was wondering if only half of one wing folded.


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Exactly. If a wing fails because of turbulence, I'd think all of us here would like to understand why. It would be nice if someone with skill could look at the spars and explain what not to try.
 
I had a loaded down dome tent at Smiley Creek end up about 100' from where I had just set it up 5 minutes earlier. Dead calm, blue sky, 9 in the morning, and I'd flown in, and had walked away to the water faucet to fill up a water bag. I never heard or felt a gust, but when I turned around saw that some kind of micro burst or something had moved the tent. I knew from experience how stable this tent was with my gear in it. Another guy saw it happen, still one of the strangest and spookiest meteorological events I have ever observed, just strange as heck. That was 30 years ago, and I still pucker up a bit when flying that area though nothing unusual has since happened, just thought I'd throw that out there.
 
Scrappy has a lot of horsepower. Possibly more opportunity for structural damage on the entire plane that may require a chute to survive. Also, he has a budget to manage the choices as well. Fun to see.
 
I guess we will see if anything will fly with enough HP. I wonder if he’s extending the wings, or putting more fuel in? I can’t imagine it would fly that great with the short CubCrafters wings.


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I think he’s hit the point where it’s not really a cub anymore.....


Geoffry DeHavilland: You must simplicate and add lightness....
 
I had a loaded down dome tent at Smiley Creek end up about 100' from where I had just set it up 5 minutes earlier. Dead calm, blue sky, 9 in the morning, and I'd flown in, and had walked away to the water faucet to fill up a water bag. I never heard or felt a gust, but when I turned around saw that some kind of micro burst or something had moved the tent. I knew from experience how stable this tent was with my gear in it. Another guy saw it happen, still one of the strangest and spookiest meteorological events I have ever observed, just strange as heck. That was 30 years ago, and I still pucker up a bit when flying that area though nothing unusual has since happened, just thought I'd throw that out there.

Chinook wind. Calm one minute, 40 mph the next.



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Could also be a Derecho as what passed through Oshkosh last year. We got caught in it over Lake Michigan on our way in. Rolled the Mooney right over on it's back with 15 miles more lake to traverse, we were not the only plane caught in it. It did massive damage from Minnesota on down.
I have experienced one back in the early "90s in Conn, came out of the Adirondacks and traveled out over the Atlantic.
 
Would a chute help if something happened while flying at 100 feet AGL? In all the videos, have you ever seen any of those Flying Cow boys fly high enough for a chute to be effective?
 
Video courtesy of the USCG. Ran out of gas after 2500 miles.

Reminds me .... “Missed it by that much”, quote Agent Maxwell Smart, CONTROL, circa 1965

 
That video of the Cirrus ditching has always bothered me since I first viewed it. The wind in the cute was dragging the plane down under faster than he could collect his gear. Appears the Cirrus is able to float quite well and might remain on the surface for some time after a ditching but being dragged by the chute did not do him any favors.

I agree about the perceived value of a chute when one commonly flies low altitudes.
 
Still curious about this structural failure. As much as he puts into design I hope he elaborates. I will put the question in the video comments.
 
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