Down but not out!

After the most amazing 2 hour flight yet in Relentless, at wicked speeds I might add, the unthinkable happened.

Just after touchdown the left gear collapsed, I tried to keep her on the smooth stuff but the left wing tagged a small runway light and pulled the ship off into the dirt where the right gear then came up. I slid a few hundred feet until coming to rest with only my ego hammered.

After an hour trying to get a lift we raised the plane by the engine and the gear came down and locked into position.Amazingly only the lower engine cowl, inner gear doors and left wing where damaged. It seems that the aircraft slid on the exhaust, (which I had not trimmed yet) the engine cowl, and the prop.

After a few hours of sobbing and disbelief it seems everyone I know at the airport jumped into action when Jon Sharp offered his backup engine and prop if I had it in me to try and make Reno. Thanks Jon!

I am writing the morning of day three and the new engine is on and ready to run, prop will be on by noon and all composite structural repairs are complete.
By Tuesday (day four) everything will be ready for paint and runs. Yury Gaintan my Composite guy is amazing. I guess years at the race track making repairs has paid off.

What happened? I am re-rigging the gear today now that everything is repaired but am sure it was simply my fault. When rigging the gear the first time I made the mistake of removing hydraulic pressure from the over-center link to make it easier for the gear to lock up. This left only a gas strut to hold the over-center link in place. I guess the combination of side loading trying to get to the runway centerline and bumping along knocked the over-center link off center. Will update more about what we do to make sure this cannot happen in the future.

Special thanks to Jon and Patricia Sharp, Yury Gaitan, Mike Dacey, Chad, Blake, Donny, Eric, and all who have offered to help! We are Relentless about Reno! Don't miss it!

Ciao,

The other Kevin Eldredge.