Carnage caused by… spinner(?) pics
Just after bragging on another thread somewhere that I haven’t brought one home in a bag for a long while, this happened. This was my tequila Sunrise .25 with a 32sx and a Macs pipe. Second flight this morning, coming out of a large lazy screaming split S, just got it leveled and lined up with the runway for a low fast down-wind pass when I heard a pop just coming over the fence. I pulled, banked away from the flight line and chopped the throttle. At least that’s what my thumbs did. The plane was totally unresponsive it continued down the runway at about 90mph and did a slow roll to the right and a shallow dive. Burned in full throttle at show center. It hit right wing tip first then motor and blew into a hundred pieces. I stepped of 24 paces, 70 feet or so, from where the wing tip hit to where the fuel tank ended up. Best looking crash I’ve seen in years.
The only clues:
1 - It was the spinner that made the loud pop. It sheared off the screw bosses and flew off. We found it at the fence. It also put a pretty big gouge in the LH wing as it flew off.
2 – The crystal was missing from my Electron Rx. The Rx is fine, no damage, but the crystal is just gone. Couldn’t find it anywhere.
Any ideas?
I’m guessing the crystal was about to fall out anyway and the spinner smacking the wing and maybe some increased vibration finished the job? The radio gear works fine, except for the throttle servo is toast. Clevises push rods all look fine. Didn’t hear any fluttering. Killed my .32 sx and the pipe. That psses me off.
EDH13