eranzenbach

Rich Schleicher from EAA Chapter 96, and himself a Long EZ owner with experience rebuilding the nose stopped in and looked over the repairs to date. Flocked NG3/NG4 and let cure for 48 hours. Cut out damaged skin with Dremel tool and used micro-spheres to fill in damage to underside of nose. Had to hold up micro-spheres with a strip of duct tape until cured. Then sanded micro-spheres and skin around cut-out and then applied several layups of BID. Question: Do I need to use BID over the strut, on either side of NG4? I should now be able to drill and connect the gear and proceed with repairing the gear door.

Did layups and clamped in place for 48 hours. Also used JB Weld to repair small chip and scrapes out of prop. After curing for 48 hours and sanding, applied primer.

Repairs going well. Received the new parts from Jim Emmons on Friday. The new NG4 and NG3 are steel.

Marc, Thanks for the insight. You are correct, I had several hard landings with Kent in the backseat. Although I didn't say in my initial post that I had hard landings, I did say that I stressed the gear. The new parts will be made of steel. Once I get it back together, I'll give you call and make arrangements to have an inspection done.

Kent, Thanks as always for the sage advice. I tried to get them to let me ride in the cockpit while they were towing it in, but they refused. It's my fault really, I should have tied the nose down to the tow brace myself. As I've already emailed you, I've found a local source that can machine new parts, the NG3, and the 10A rod. The spar itself looks like it's in good condition. I've also inspected the main landing gear spar as you've suggested. It looks to be fine. No small cracks that I can see, nothing flaking off of it, nothing to indicate that it sustained any damage. This is a credit to your decision to use the more robust Cozy gear on this Long EZ. The gentleman doing the machining of the new parts is Jim Emons. Jim's specialty is converting manual to electric retractable gear on long EZ's and Cozy's. Jim comes recommended through EAA chapter 96 in Compton California and he lives near Chino California. His email address is jeezuni61ze@gmail.com and I'm sure he can be a source for parts if anyone needs anything. An FAA accident investigator came out and took several pictures and has concluded that the bushing rod end where it connects to NG3 failed. I've included pictures of the failed NG3 bracket showing the bushing rod end connection that fractured. Also included is a picture of the 10A rod itself, which ground down against the pavement and will have to be replaced as well. After that it's just a matter of getting glasswork done. Hopefully I'll be back in the air this coming weekend.

Here are some of the pictures of the damage.

I'm the proud owner of N16AV, long EZ built by Kent Ashton. Kent is truly a master builder, and finished the plane in 2014. I recently purchased it from him and he was kind enough to fly it out to southern California from North Carolina. He also spent a few days out here transitioning me into the aircraft. During my transition I found the aircraft to be a little hotter than the Cessna 172 that I trained and certified in. Several of my initial landing attempts, well let's just say I stressed the gear. I also know that I bounced the nose gear up and down off the runway numerous times in my first 30 landings and I suspect this to be the cause of my nose gear collapse (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGRVgcN0_kg for GoPro video from inside the cockpit). After spending the afternoon with an FAA accident investigator, it appears that the strut itself or the NG3 bracket failed. During the incident, I also picked up some kind of foreign object and put a small nick in the propeller blade. Ground services at my airport were kind enough to tow me in, however during the tow, the nose strap came loose and the airplane tipped backwards, fortunately not on the propeller, but there is some minor damage to the wheel pants and the rudders. Having never built an airplane for, I look forward to making the repairs and making aircraft my own. Kent has been kind enough to take a look at pictures of the damage and, I'm sure, the mentoring me through the process. I'm also hoping to enlist the help of several local members of the EAA as I put the airplane back into flight condition. I intend to document process so that other newbies like myself can appreciate the design durability of this aircraft and ability to put it back into flying condition after an accident. My first step will be to do a detailed inspection of the damage the aircraft. That will be my next couple of postings. I will post pictures of the damage and the fixes as it's repaired.