Shearwater Firefly damaged?

[helinut]

I heard yesterday that the Shearwater Firefly was damaged while doing high speed taxi tests,heard it got airborne unexpectedly and made a hard forced landing, pushing one landing gear thru the wing, the other was torn off and the prop destroyed , can anyone confirm this ?

[Invader26]

Sad to hear. What is the purpose however of a "high speed taxy test"???

Many aircraft pranged doing this "not anything" manoeuvre...

[peter]

That is very sad to hear after all the work that has gone into it.....

[Stephan Wilkinson]

If they were planning to fly it, it's a necessary prelude to getting airborne. Certainly I did high-speed taxi tests on the airplane I built (a Falco).

[Invader26]

It is not really necessary to do a "high speed" taxy test in a heavy taildragger like the Firefly. By all means get a few knots in her but nothing near flying speed.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Are you a pilot?

[Kyleb]

If they were planning to fly it, it's a necessary prelude to getting airborne. Certainly I did high-speed taxi tests on the airplane I built (a Falco).

Common guidance in the Ex-AB community is that high speed taxiing isn't the best idea. It puts you in a transitional mode for an extended period, and that transitional mode is a very common time/place for PIO's and other loss of control accidents.

There are counter arguments too, but I'm of the anti- HS taxi school.

[Warbird Kid]

Any pictures of the damage?

[51fixer]

If they were planning to fly it, it's a necessary prelude to getting airborne. Certainly I did high-speed taxi tests on the airplane I built (a Falco).

Warbirds are already a proven design and don't require all the steps to flight that a homebuilt or new design may require.
To test an engine and its systems at high power you typically tie the tail down and run it that way.
If a normal taxi shows a tendency to pull to one side or another then that needs to be checked out as well as any tailwheel lock, steering and brake issues.
High Speed Taxi prolongs exposure time to all the issues inherent to a high Performance Tailwheel A/C. Particularly if you don't have experience operating that specific type as is often the case when operating a new, rarer type for the 1st time. Landing rollout is where most incidents seem to happen seconded by T-O. High Speed Taxi is both in one operation rather than 2 separate events that can be planned for and, in the case of landing, can be thought out much clearer and set up during the approach.
Sorry to hear of this kind of damage but glad that the pilot evidently wasn't hurt.

[Dan Jones]

If they were planning to fly it, it's a necessary prelude to getting airborne. Certainly I did high-speed taxi tests on the airplane I built (a Falco).

Warbirds are already a proven design and don't require all the steps to flight that a homebuilt or new design may require.
To test an engine and its systems at high power you typically tie the tail down and run it that way.
If a normal taxi shows a tendency to pull to one side or another then that needs to be checked out as well as any tailwheel lock, steering and brake issues.
High Speed Taxi prolongs exposure time to all the issues inherent to a high Performance Tailwheel A/C. Particularly if you don't have experience operating that specific type as is often the case when operating a new, rarer type for the 1st time. Landing rollout is where most incidents seem to happen seconded by T-O. High Speed Taxi is both in one operation rather than 2 separate events that can be planned for and, in the case of landing, can be thought out much clearer and set up during the approach.
Sorry to hear of this kind of damage but glad that the pilot evidently wasn't hurt.

It also eats up runway at an alarming rate, and has cornered more than one guy who suddenly found himself without enough room to easily stop.

[Invader26]

Are you a pilot?

I assume you mean me!

I've owned/flown and rated on B-25/P-2/C-47/TBM/T-6/O-1/O-2/B58/C310/B-17....and some others...

What's your point?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

I was just asking. No "point" intended.

[marine air]

High Speed taxiing seems to make the most sense when an aircraft A) has a nosewheel and B) Isn't airworthy. Say the Vulcan Bomber in England. I can think of soo many instances where an airplane has gotten torn up doing high speed taxiing. A Fokker Tri-plane replica in the 1970's, the CAF's Martin Mauler in the 1980's, The "Oscar" replica in the 1990's. a Varieze at (KMQY) with fatal results, a "Cozy" at (KDKX) with expensive damage, and many more.
My dad taught me years ago to spend hours in the cockpit, lots of taxiing , and getting a feel for the brakes, any sponginess, landing gear out of alignment, etc. Then go fly for 20 minutes or more and "limber up" My dad has owned 40 plus aircraft and I have flown many more. We never do "high speed taxi tests above say .75 Stalling Speed" (Estimated Guess). The track record, especially with homebuiltws , is pretty bad.

[Mike]

That's just how the Macchi 205 was wrecked in Italy in the 1980s, sadly it never flew again.

[Mark Allen M]

My dad and his brothers used to build airplanes back in the 30's on my grandmothers farm way up in Northern Michigan. They used to zip up and down the old dirt roads back then with no wings attached. Couldn't afford to build wings yet. I suppose that was a form of high speed taxiing. Or simply teenagers playing with glorified go-carts.

My high speed taxiing was always ruined when my instructor made me pull back on the yoke and take off.

The early stages of my flight training I could have been happy without the taking off the ground part lol. Of course that would change very quickly. I now pride myself as being not too bad at greasing it in ...