SonexBuilders.net

Hi all,
Today feb10 article on N393SXon http://www.kathrynsreport.com
reports LeRoy has serious injuries. Hope he is getting better and on the mend.

WaiexN143NM
Michael.

Direct link: http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/02/sonex-n393sx-accidents-occurred.html

If I'm reading the report right, it sounds like the cause of the accident was improperly assembled rocker arms.

Is this a more complicated portion of the overall assembly process?

Paul,

The accident report is confusing in that it runs from the current accident right into the past accident from 3 yrs ago. In that old accident Leroy's engine lost power due to broken valve adjusters. He told us that a local "expert" helped him set up the valve train geometry and the adjusters were screwed nearly all the way out. Setting the adjusters is specifically addressed in the AeroVee manual (nearly all the way screwed in), and it's really unfortunate that this situation caused him to have an accident.

Jeff

lpaaruule wrote:If I'm reading the report right, it sounds like the cause of the accident was improperly assembled rocker arms.

Is this a more complicated portion of the overall assembly process?

Nope. It's very simple. A wrench, flat head screwdriver and a 0.006 feeler. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to do all my valve adjustments every 50 hours on the AeroVee.

But initially you have to shim them to the specified geometry. Was not hard, my 14 year old (at the time) did it.

The Kathryns report shows two accidents. One in 2016, caused by engine failure (the result instigating the B-model conversion), and the one in 2018 after the B-model conversion and engine swap, due to drifting into trees on final.

Thanks for the clarification everyone.

I hope LeRoy makes a full and complete recovery.

I can empathize with Leroy. My airport also has a tall tree just off the runway center line at the threshold. When you're slow on final the tree disappears under the nose of the plane and isn't very visible. When approaching from that end of the runway I always stayed higher than the tree and landed 1/3 of the way down the runway.

Sounds like a short field landing over a 50 foot obstacle would be appropriate for those conditions. If it is not a short field you get the extra benefit of a long runway.