You be the judge, ill try to give ya the whole story and you tell me if it was really a ground loop.
The new owner of the Woody came to claim it today, I was busy here at the farm so my friend and IA was here to assist in loading it for the long trip to NC. However I had time to go out to the hanger and greet them. After a nice introduction and a prelim inspection the new owner said he'd like to see it fly and he was a little rusty with the tailwheel thing. SOOOO I climbed aboard a said "Don't worry if I bend it ill pay ya back" Yup.. really said that. The winds were 8 gusting to 12 but Quartering down the runway. On take off it was over in about 200' and gave me a good chance to feel out the conditions, Felt good I thought, so I made a hard turn and brought it right back down the runway for a downwind fly-by to impress the onlookers, then another hard 180deg turn to land. Pay attention this is where it gets good. I touched the right main and held for just a second for alignment then the other settled, good i thought but I'm vaining into the wind so I brought the tail down with authority. Good I thought so I pulled the power back. Then I started to run out of rudder. No worries, I thought, I'm going pretty slow and Ive got alot of breaks so I got after the left break and it stayed pretty straight. Just then I felt, and actually identified, the feeling of the left gear folding under me. Pretty not very good feeling. I instantly went to full power full up and hard right rudder and break. The tail came up a LONG FRIIGING WAY but didn't go over and the left wing tip almost hit the ground, NOW WHERE TURNEN, Then .... it stoped. I pulled the power back assessed myself and the craft and shut it off. it came to rest about 90deg from the runway and just off the right side. The next thing I know the new owner and his buddy's are standing beside me patting me on the back for something.
After I got over being Pissed at my self for all that crap, I told the owner if he didn't want it I understood for shur. after talking about it for a while he said he really wanted it and he'd take it home for $1000 less than the agreed cost and (you ll never believe this) he said if it was a simple gear rebuild he'd mail me the rest back. Plus I believe him.
I took the gear to my shop to rig smthn to set it on for its ride home and after cleaning the broken area to weld it together, I found some of the WORST looking welds (if you can callem that) that Ive ever seen. The Paint was the only thing holding. I showed him the area in question and told him to spent the thousand and build a whole new gear for both sides. My AI friend in the meantime had already found in the logs where the last owner had built a "new" gear for it about a year before I bought it.
SO what did YOU do today?
a lot more humble than this morning, Tim
The new owner of the Woody came to claim it today, I was busy here at the farm so my friend and IA was here to assist in loading it for the long trip to NC. However I had time to go out to the hanger and greet them. After a nice introduction and a prelim inspection the new owner said he'd like to see it fly and he was a little rusty with the tailwheel thing. SOOOO I climbed aboard a said "Don't worry if I bend it ill pay ya back" Yup.. really said that. The winds were 8 gusting to 12 but Quartering down the runway. On take off it was over in about 200' and gave me a good chance to feel out the conditions, Felt good I thought, so I made a hard turn and brought it right back down the runway for a downwind fly-by to impress the onlookers, then another hard 180deg turn to land. Pay attention this is where it gets good. I touched the right main and held for just a second for alignment then the other settled, good i thought but I'm vaining into the wind so I brought the tail down with authority. Good I thought so I pulled the power back. Then I started to run out of rudder. No worries, I thought, I'm going pretty slow and Ive got alot of breaks so I got after the left break and it stayed pretty straight. Just then I felt, and actually identified, the feeling of the left gear folding under me. Pretty not very good feeling. I instantly went to full power full up and hard right rudder and break. The tail came up a LONG FRIIGING WAY but didn't go over and the left wing tip almost hit the ground, NOW WHERE TURNEN, Then .... it stoped. I pulled the power back assessed myself and the craft and shut it off. it came to rest about 90deg from the runway and just off the right side. The next thing I know the new owner and his buddy's are standing beside me patting me on the back for something.
After I got over being Pissed at my self for all that crap, I told the owner if he didn't want it I understood for shur. after talking about it for a while he said he really wanted it and he'd take it home for $1000 less than the agreed cost and (you ll never believe this) he said if it was a simple gear rebuild he'd mail me the rest back. Plus I believe him.
I took the gear to my shop to rig smthn to set it on for its ride home and after cleaning the broken area to weld it together, I found some of the WORST looking welds (if you can callem that) that Ive ever seen. The Paint was the only thing holding. I showed him the area in question and told him to spent the thousand and build a whole new gear for both sides. My AI friend in the meantime had already found in the logs where the last owner had built a "new" gear for it about a year before I bought it.
SO what did YOU do today?
a lot more humble than this morning, Tim
