Update on Ken

I know, I know… I said that the March issue would be my last. Fortunately, Norm Vienneau has agreed to be the new Skywriter Editor. However, Norman was still down south so I decided to help out and do one last issue (my 122nd issue!).

First, I’ll give you a quick update on my biggest project… healing! I’ve made great progress over the past month. I’ve actually gone from having absolutely no weight on the left leg at all, to full weight bearing! I started back to work on two crutches after a five weeks hiatus. After week six, I was allowed to start putting weight on the knee. I was tentative for the first few days until the next physio appointment. Jeff the Punisher, aka Jeff the physiotherapist, quickly made me demonstrate just how much weight the knee could really support. By the end of the session, I had taken my first hoppity steps without the crutches. However, I did continue to use the crutches for the next week or so; first two then one.

By week seven, I had abandoned the crutches altogether! I was still limping but feeling minimal pain. Sure, every now and again I get a rather disconcerting “pop” from the knee, but I’ve been told that this is the new normal. I’m still using the brace (ankle to crotch) for the next month or so but will be fitted with a high-tech smaller brace as soon as the swelling has gone down enough in the knee to get a stable casting of the joint. I’ll likely be using the small brace as a walking aid for the next year, and as a stabilizer for any sort of sport I do indefinitely.

The last session with the physiotherapist was this week. Now that I’m full weight bearing, he has come up with a new regime of torture to try and strengthen the atrophied leg muscles. My muscles have never been so sore! However, it is working as I seem to be getting stronger all the time. One other major step forward was getting permission to finally drive again. It was two months to the day since I had last driven. This single act has really done a lot to get us back to normal. Renee doesn’t have to drive me to and from work and we can both go back to our regular hours! What a huge freedom!

The big purge has begun in earnest now. We started with the basement followed closely by the hangar. There are three piles now: the keep pile, the garage sale pile and the toss pile. The garage sale is looking like it will have a LOT of aviation parts, components, raw materials, tools and so on. To make room, we scrapped the Buttercup fuselage (now nothing more than a pile of scrap tubing) although I did keep the tail intact which may become a piece of modern art 

I’ve been told by the boss that once the purge is completed, I can start construction on the new kitplane I just purchased. It’s a J-3 Cub replica. I’ve even purchased the radio and engine! Of course, it’s only 1/5.5 scale with a 76” span. Although I used to fly RC lots when I was in my teens and early 20’s, this is my first R/C model kit in decades. Notice I said kit… no stinking ARF (almost ready to fly), RTF (ready to fly), foam or electric planes for me! I’m strictly old school! In fact, if the flying season wasn’t already so close, I would have built from scratch! Granted, I may relent on the electrics at some point, but I build what I fly . To be honest, I was amazed at just how much the R/C model industry has changed in the past 25 years, especially in the radio and electric motor technologies. By the way, the engine is a 4-stroke… I don’t even trust 2-strokes in MODEL airplanes

Amateur, and Not-So-Amateur Sleuthing!

A couple of weeks ago, Stu Simpson dropped by for a visit. It was shortly after getting the 132 crash site pictures from the Bashaw RCMP. Something that Glenn had said directly after the accident didn’t ring true. He had mentioned that the left landing gear leg was damaged so he had surmised that the plane must have touched down upright or had somehow tumbled. Having been hyper-aware during the entire descent, I knew that this wasn’t the case. However, when reviewing the pictures, sure enough the rear tube on the gear leg was bent and the fabric torn (see Photo 1). I showed this to Stu, and like a dog on a bone, he dug in to determine the cause of the damage! First, given that the way fabric was frayed and the paint was cracked on the free piece of fabric, Stu determined that the damage was done at altitude during the collision. The fabric was flapping like a flag all the way to the ground. But we knew that Glenn’s plane came in from above and the right. So how did the LEFT gear leg get damaged?

It took a while but finally Stu came up with a theory. Only the lower left longeron was attached after the crash, the rest of the structure was cut by Glenn’s prop. The force of the impact pivoted the entire tail section of my plane, against the slipstream, so that the left stabilizer tip contacted the rear landing gear leg. After looking through all the pictures, we did find one that shows the left stabilizer tip sporting a small dent and fresh blue paint that matched the gear leg (see photo 2). Mystery #1 solved.

The other mystery that had troubled me since the crash was how my seatback broke off. When I dropped out of the plane I noticed that the pilot’s seatback was gone. I also had a bunch of cuts on my scalp that I initially thought came from the broken skylight, but it was not damaged in a manner that would have caused the cuts. During the fall, I had the distinct memory of my right cheek being forced against a hard plastic surface, which I always assumed was the skylight. However, that meant that I would have been forced about a foot above the seat, stretching the seatbelt and my head would have had to clear the steel tube cross bars at the top of the cabin.

After some thought, I came up with an alternative theory that fits. The impact with the ground was not in the right direction to have caused excessive force on the seatback. The plane actually impacted the ground on the prop and top of the windscreen. From the marks on the ground, it actually hit with little or no forward velocity, but slid to the left about 80’-100’.

However, realizing the force at which the planes initially hit (the tail being pushed around) it made sense that this is when the seatback separated. The seat was one repurposed from a Piper PA-38 Tomahawk. However, aircraft seats are not designed with rear end collision and whiplash protection in mind. They seldom come with headrests and are designed to be lightweight. The design is usually focused more on protecting the occupants from a downward impact. In fact, because there were no headrests to protect my neck from whiplash, it’s lucky that the seatback DID fail (Have I mentioned just HOW LUCKY I was after the collision? ).

With the high negative G force, the seatback would have been thrown to the top of the cabin where my cheek came to rest on the plastic backing of the seat. The lower part of the seat had jagged steel and aluminum bits that could easily have caused the cuts to the scalp and would have given enough time for the blood to be distributed all around the cabin like we saw. One of the photos actually shows the seatback in this position after the crash. Mystery #2 solved.

Personally, I found this quite interesting. Understanding the dynamics of what happened and playing crash investigator was both enlightening and oddly therapeutic! One interesting side note: I mentioned before that Chrissy would not fly again after the crash. Well, part of her DID fly again on the day of the crash. The ¾” steel tube that formed the right stabilizer tip became embedded in the fuselage of Glenn’s plane. It was wedged in so tight between the gear and fuselage that he had to loosen off the gear let to get it out!

I see from Bashar’s column that I am being bestowed with a lifetime club membership. I am very pleased by the honour and only hope that I have been able to provide the club with an informative and entertaining monthly read over the past 10 years. I had VERY big shoes to fill when Bob Kirkby turned the newsletter over to me and I’m sure Norm will continue the tradition.

Well folks, that’s all for me. I won’t be at the meeting this month, but I do wish you CAVU Dreams!