Elevator Rock Rash

[Nev]

I've recently clocked over 500 hours on my BH. One thing that has been a recurring theme is getting rock and stone damage on the underside of my elevators - both sides. Given that it's a bush-plane, and a very capable one at that, my purpose for building and owning it was to get out "off-piste" and explore the backcountry. So while I make every effort to look after the airplane and keep it in great condition, I also made a conscious choice to use it as I intended and that includes some gravel bars and on occasion higher rough strips that by their nature have a large quantity of sharper rocks of all sizes.

My question here is, do any of you know if take-off and landing technique has an effect on rock damage to the empennage. For example, I used to keep the elevators full forward to help raise the tail clear of the ground. However this obviously presents the elevators squarely in the way of flying rocks. So for the past couple of hundred hours I've tried to keep the elevators neutral when operating on rocks - however it hasn't made much difference. I've eliminated heavy braking (on nearly all landings) and have always performed rolling take-offs. With a tailwind, I'm very careful with ground handling and thrust application especially on loose surfaces to avoid picking up rocks in the prop vortices.

It's possible that getting this type of damage is simply "par for the course". But if anyone has any good suggestions then I'd welcome sharing them here.

[Steve W]

When I started flying for a “new to me” outfit I asked the chief engineer how he wanted me to treat his machines. “Don’t do any short field take offs unless its a life or death situation.” He was extremely serious at the time so I paid attention. “Ease forward with speed and power. No WOT until airspeed is alive and if there is plenty of runway, wait a while longer. As the tail comes up add full power and I better not see any marks on that prop.”
If he found a nick in the prop at the next 100hr inspection, I could feel his eyes across the hangar floor if I was in the building. I got the same lecture when we went to floats about taxiing too fast down wind when the water was rough. And again he would say, “slow with the power on takeoff.” I think those instructions helped me keep the tail of my Patrol kinda damage free but I didn’t operate on many gravel strips before switching to amphibs.
Again my 2 cents worth.

[Nev]

That's exactly what I was after. Thanks.

[Richard E]

Nev,

I had the same advice after putting a hole in the underside of the elevator. Avoid stones/gravel and put the throttle in gradually to get momentum first. I've never had a hole since.

Its pretty rare that you really need to do a short field take-off in a 260hp Bearhawk given that it is normally off the ground within a few feet !

[TJ_Slice]

Just curious, is there any pattern to the location of the damage, or is it random?

[rodsmith]

I can't add anything to the great advise Steve W gave. When I was flying my Maule in Alaska on some very rough strips, I not only had damage to the elevator fabric, I had several dents in the leading edge tube of the horizontal stab from gravel. That prompted me to build my Bearhawk stabs with a .049 leading edge tube instead of .035. When I recovered my Maule I did a double layer of fabric on the underside of the elevators. This was actually outlined in the Polyfiber manual, they called it bulletproof fabric. Just a thought if they get bad enough to recover them.

[Nev]

I'm thinking of doing the same double skin on the underside Rod. Good idea.

[Nev]

Just curious, is there any pattern to the location of the damage, or is it random?

Most of the damage is to the underside of the elevators - as you'd expect - and pretty much directly behind the main wheels. The occasional rock appears to have "bounced around" and required several repairs. On one occasion I discovered the under-side of a horizontal stabiliser rib had been deformed and was evident by loose fabric in that area. Fortunately we were able to remove the stab, make a tool on a long arm, and fix it using access through the lower trim tab arm cover.

Interesting there is no damage to the flaps at all, and only one nick to the fabric in the aft fuselage. The horizontal stabiliser struts have taken a few direct hits, being directly in line with the main wheels. Early on I purchased a second pair of struts. They're quick to change out, and can then be repaired without down-time.

One of the local Mechanics showed me how to make up a piece of fabric on a frame, and prepare it right through to painting. I now keep a prepared roll that can be cut into patches for repairs when needed. The longer term plan is to do a double skin covering on my spare set of elevators for longevity. I recall that Mike Patey also did a video on this. I've always done rolling takeoffs on gravel, but I think I'll try a far more measured application of power and see if I can reduce the number of airborne rocks being flung enthusiastically rearwards !

[Pat Fagan]

All those techniques are good, but they didn’t fully solve the problem until I switched to bald tires. The tread was picking up the rocks and propelling them at the stab.