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The event unfolded as I was towing Larry
Jorgensen and a student tandem. The student was pilot in command for the
entire tow and it was a wild ride so when they released at 1000ft. I was
more relieved the tow was over than concerned why a release, 1500ft
short of altitude.
I slowly throttled back and continued a climb,
throttling back more, induced forward stick pressure but no travel was
detected, shake it wiggle it, won’t move, can’t be! I looked in the
mirror and saw the problem; one side of the stabilizer was hanging down
at a 90 degree angle.
The tang attached to the cable holding the stabilizer failed at the
hole.
A quick check of the condition of the other 2 axis
assured me I had plenty of time to make a good decision, the plane flew
fine. The next part you Davis, should know well from your experience
with the Top Secret. The scene becomes surrealistic like your watching
yourself deal with the situation, no reason to panic everything is fine,
but every now and then you wonder how will this turn out, will I once
again be lucky?
Given the turbulence we experienced launching I
felt trying to land was too risky so up wind I went. At an altitude and
position that hopefully would put me at the airport I pulled the red
handle. I had throttled back to idle but before I shut the engine off,
(no electric starter, I didn’t want to lose the ability to keep flying)
I contemplated the canister, wondering if I was in harms way after all
it is an explosive.
I decided the engineers came up with this devise
and its location to save me not harm me so I let her rip. Oops forgot to
kill the engine. No problem, it’s quiet now that the chute STOPPED it, I
thought for sure I had wrapped the chute up in the prop. But then, the
intensity of the moment along with the sudden silence gave me the
feeling I was under the canopy, the tug was trimmed (stuck) at just
above stall, I really wanted to be and thought I was floating.
Suddenly I experienced G forces building and the
tug was penduluming backwards. I thought for sure I had only a partial
canopy due to the prop strike. But actually the chute was finally
inflating. Because the tug had been flying slowly and not falling out of
the sky, the large chute had a hard time opening. I looked up to see it
fully inflated only to watch in wavering and partially collapsing
causing me to accelerate until the chute filled in again then another
portion would flap and inflate so the tug would head one way then
another.
We (the tug and I) finally came down on top of a
30ft high gravel pile less than 50yds. from trees on one side and a deep
pond on the other. I don’t recall hitting hard enough to bend the gear
but that was the case. Sadly I was on the edge of the gravel pile and
the chute pulled the tug off the gravel over on its back at the bottom
of the sloping pile, destroying the vertical components and one side of
the horizontal tail section.
I unbuckled slid out and removed the leaking gas
can. Excitement over, gotta go find my worried friends. We now know that
the tangs that are subjected to the forces of towing need to be replaced
every 300hrs. The tug should be back in operation soon and we will be
enjoying and sharing the excitement of air towing again!
Result: Pilot survived!
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