Immediately after my first full fledged vintage race weekend in 1984 I learned
that under race conditions, things wear out and break exponentially. In those
days I drove my Healey to the track. After the second day of racing my front
brake pads were gone (but I didn't know it yet) and as I drove to the Safeway
store to get something for dinner that evening, it went metal to metal.
Things that will last 20 to 30 thousand miles under normal street driving
conditions will wear out or break in a matter of hours under hard racing.
Fasteners will come loose. That's why we safety wire and paint mark bolt
heads. Racers inspect their cars constantly for cracks, leaks and loose
fittings. Just like pilots.
Even with our street Healeys, we should be occasionally checking fasteners on
the motor mounts, front and rear shocks. Checking for play in the wheel
bearings and tie rod ends.
Richard
> Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:32:45 -0800
> From: bspidell@comcast.net
> To: healeys@autox.team.net
> Subject: [Healeys] OT: Galloping Ghost ...
>
> ... was the highly-modified P-51D that crashed at the Reno Air Races in
2011, killing the pilot and 10 spectators, and
> injuring many others. I just finished reading a 'Plane & Pilot' article
summarizing the NTSB's determination of the
> cause of the crash: six small screws holding the elevator trim tabs to their
hinges had come loose, two had broken
> allowing one of the tabs to separate causing loss of control with extreme
G-loading causing pilot incapacitation. The
> NTSB determined that that screws had come loose in their locknuts, which had
some sort of insert (usually, these are the
> locknuts with metal inserts, but I've seen the 'nylock' type used as well).
The plane had extensive and, presumably,
> expensive speed mods including a 'boil-off' cooling system that let the
alcohol/water coolant boil and vaporize in order
> to cool the engine.
>
> Bottom line: the plane, with probably hundreds of thousands if not millions
of dollars worth of mods, was brought down
> by a few bucks' worth of screws and locknuts (and, though it was unsaid in
the article, it can be assumed sloppy or
> inattentive maintenance).
>
> Healey content? Next time you're bolting (or screwing) something up on your
Healey give some thought to the
> appropriateness and condition of the fasteners you're using and their proper
installation.
>
> Bob
>
> --
> *******************************************************************
> Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
>
> *******************************************************************
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