I visited Little Rissington recently. It is ‘sort of’ open to the flying public, but is owned by the MOD and you have to get PPR and a briefing from a resident maintenance organisation there (Devonair) to land.
This involves reading the flying order book and understanding the taxi rules etc. Basically, most of the historic taxiways joining the three runways are disused and the way you get to the Devonair hangars is to taxi along runway 32 to then end then take a grass taxiway some 100 m or more to the Devonair hangars.
Well, I turned up and landed on 22 and turned off onto 32. I got to the end and for the life of me I couldn’t see a grass taxiway. I did see one of two bollards, but not apparently arranged in a linear manner that indicated a taxiway. I did see a tarmac track with grass patches on it, so I thought that must be what they meant by a grass taxiway. I carefully followed this, weaving in the RV6 as it is a taildragger and the forward visibility (in common with virtually all taildraggers) is poor. I can normally managed by craning my neck, but on this occasion, I decided to ‘play it safe and weave’.
I approached an intersection with another taxiway checking left and right for traffic and obstructions. I spotted one of the folding, low level road signs (you know, the ‘accident here – can you help’ type) on my left and moved slightly to the right to make sure the wing didn’t pass over it – I was clear of it. I heard a cry from my passenger saying ‘STOP’. I looked to my right and stopped a split second later as I saw a shape disappear under the right wing.
Now you see it....
I didn’t feel anything in the aircraft and of course hoped that whatever it was (my passenger said it was another sign of a different type and he didn’t see it as it was edge on until we approached it). Don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way attempting to ‘blame’ my passenger, only to indicate that although both of us were looking, neither of us saw it until the last second - I fly with this guy fairly often and he knows the drill.
So of course I shut down and got out and investigated. I was sick to see that the edge of the sign (made out of car licence plates) has scratched the underside of the wing and as the wing dipped, it lead to a deep scratch, then a dent – in total about 30-35 cm long. We carefully lifted the wing off and man-handled the plane to parking.
Now you dont..... (the feet were nicely concealed by the grass lip)
The dent did not appear to have pierced the metal (although on closer examination later, it did in one place). Well, I was mortified. I would be pretty hacked off if it was my own aircraft, but as it is a group of six, I felt worse. Bottom line is that the chap from Devonair told me that I was on the tarmac taxiway marked as ‘do not use’ – of course from the Devonair hangar, I could clearly see the grass taxiway now and the bollard lines. My only defence is that I did not see it from the end of 32 as the airfield has something of a ‘domed’ shape, so some of the bollards were out of line of sight.
What would / could I have done differently? Well, I did think of calling on the radio for taxi instructions, but dismissed this as it is only a ‘radio’ service, manned by the military, who were on the other side and because of the shape of the airfield, couldn’t see me anyway. What I could and should have done (hindsight being perfect) was to shut down at the end of 32, got out and walked around to be certain. I didn’t do that, so it was my fault. The sign was edge on and devilishly hard to see, we only saw it when ‘it shape changed’ as we approached it, but then I shouldn’t have been there anyway. An expensive lesson learned.
We have since had the aircraft examined by our LAA Engineer who took photos and communicated his repair suggestion with the LAA and gained their approval. We will have the shallow dent beaten out and smoothed and the deeper dent cut and patched with a flush patch (much like an inspection panel). Hopefully this won’t take too long, days not weeks. I will of course bear the full cost of the repair as I hope it is unlikely to exceed the policy excess.
Well, lesson learned. If in doubt, have the courage to shut down and check it out yourself! I guess ‘there are those that have and those that will’. I write this account for the benefit of others who may be able to learn from my mistake. This incident and cracking the perspex cover of a wing tip light is the full extent of my aircraft ‘incidents’ in some 440 hours of flying – so on balance, maybe I am lucky!
