Airborne Windsports Australia - Microlights

Airborne Windsports Australia - Microlights

Airborne Windsport Trikes Australia

EXIF

ModeliPad
Shutter1/916
Aperturef/2.4
ISO Speed50
Focal Length4mm
Captured2013:01:04 11:50:33

airborne-3

  • 1624 views
By TrikeBoyWonder
  • 3 of 3
airborne-3

Comments

  • wefly

    The component appears to be the front base tube to front support tube junction where the forks bolt to the base frame? An important piece. All Trikers should be sure to read all the Airworthiness Directives for their trikes and perform thorough inspections-- your life and our sport depends on you!

  • Ken

    Wow, If I recall this would be located well within the pod on most Airborne models right? Is this easy to see during preflight?

     

  • YFT

    Information on this should be immediately sent to Airborne, in which they would make a decision as to whether an AD should be put out on the specific type of aircraft. From these photos we can't tell whether it is a two-srtroke or a four-stroke, and, also how this occurred? Was it the fault of bad factory welding, or of a heavy landing? What type of Airborne trike is it?...tourer/tundra etc.? How old is it? How many landings has it done in its lifetime? With how many pilots in command? All of this is relevant, but more importantly, we, as pilots, reading this, should not JUMP to conclusions, calling for safety inspections on all trikes. We do not have the authority. This can also be construed as SCARE MONGERING. We have seen this before, to everone's detriment...

    CFI/Level 2 Maintenance/ YFT

  • TrikeBoyWonder

    I am in general agreement with your position here YFT.  But the particulars here are not that straight forward. 

    This problem has only very recently been detected.  So far there has been one crack that has led to a failure and other crack that has been detected on another trike.  The warning about this situation was only circulated just yesterday when a guy posted the warning on another trike web site.  He is a CFI at a trike school and he wanted to get the information out to the Airborne flying public ASAP. Here is the exact thread as it was posted at the other site.

     

    Denny Reed Attention AIRBORNE owners: I am relaying information that there has been one complete failure of a Prow Tube / Limiter Tube junction and another owner has discovered a crack in his. The factory is still closed this week so we're having hard time moving this information around the community. Please email me at denny@trikeschool.com or contact Gerry at Birds In Paradise for photos & instructions. Inspect your plane before flying.

    21 hours ago
     
    From the information posted here I will go out on a limb and speculate that what we are talking about is the XT 912 being the bird in question.  I make this assumption on the fact that flight schools and the CFI's that I know who train with Airborne use the XT 912 extensively.  The other thing that draws me to that conclusion, is that Gerry at Birds of Paradise use the Airborne XT 912 exclusively for their operations, so I am inclined to believe this is the case here.  Flight schools (Denny's case) and ride operations (Gerry's case) put on lots of hours per year with a lot of heavy use and sometimes very hard landings.
     
    The problem at the moment with contacting Airborne about all of this is that Airborne is still on vacation from the holidays so there is no one there at the office to even get the information, no less act on it at this very moment.  The Duncan brothers who created, own and run Airborne are very good about service directives and customer service.  I am quite sure that when they have all the information in hand they will act accordingly with out delay to alert their owners and correct the problem.  It is in everybody's best interest to do just that.
     
    The only reason that Denny alerted us about this in this way, is in the interest of safety in the short term until Airborne takes this up and gets going with the solution to the problem and not to cause a panic.  It won't hurt for the owners to take the precaution to take a look for themselves to see if they have this to deal with before their next flight.  It might save somebody's butt in the short term as I see it.

     

  • YFT

    I have just contacted Airborne and they are aware of this issue. The most important thing for everyone to understand is that Airborne "batches" EVERYTHING. This issue is not life threatening, and Airborne is checking all other aircraft within that batch. That area of the trike is only under strain during taxi-ing and landing, and, once again, it is not life threatening.

    If your aircraft is within the batch which may have a "faulty weld", you will be contacted. In the meanwhile, for peace of mind, have a look at your front tube as part of your pre-flight check.

    YFT

  • Ole

    I wonder if maybe it is a trike from Hawaii... Bad corrosion over there at Burns Field Kauai. The clue is Charlie Boy.

  • XC Triker

    Ole, I saw that too, and that's what I thought--- Salt Air from Hawaii.

    Poll of AirBorne owners RE this issue HERE

  • TrikeBoyWonder

    Well salt air encourages corrosion but I don't see any evidence to that in these pictures that we have.  It appears more like a stressed weld crack to me.  I am sure that Airborne will sort it out quickly and do the right thing about addressing it.  And as YFT pointed out they are now aware of the problem so the wheels are turning on this as we type here.