Floor Board Buckling - 172P

Murdoughnut

Murdoughnut

Well sized member
Our plane is in the shop - was curious if anyone had any experience with the damage described below or any ideas what might have caused it...

...about 15 minutes before final landing we began having difficulty with the rudder control. Generally, much more than normal right rudder was required at high power, high attitude.

Following a thorough inspection by Matt at CAMS. it was decided to leave the aircraft for a complete tear-down of the control system. Of extreme interest and a real mystery to all 3 of us were dents (buckling) in the floor board structure between left and right pedals of both left and right controls. On the right side the dent was deep and bare metal exposed through the black paint, as if a heavy metal object has been thrown forward against it. If anyone has any knowledge or contributions of cause of this discrepancy please let one of your club directors know right away.
 
I'd have a good hard look at the nose gear structure. The only way I can see the skin by the rudder pedals being buckled is either as the email said a heavy object which seems unlikely, or bad damage to the nose gear structure including a wrinkled firewall.
 
Sounds like a hard landing on the nosewheel.

I used to instruct at UND, and they went through a phase where several brand new 172's ended up needing $50k of work to repair buckled firewalls and floorboards after students hit the nosewheel on landing.
 
Murdoughnut said:
...were dents (buckling) in the floor board structure between left and right pedals of both left and right controls.
Click to expand...
The bare piece of metal, immediately below the pedals, is not a structural panel. It is a thin trim piece that keeps larger objects from getting in the area. Most likely, one of the panel's screws came out in flight allowing the trim piece to flex and interferer with pedal movement.

Or...the pedals are rubbing on the sidewall panels.

Or...Something from behind the panel, such as a hose/wire fell behind a pedal, blocking movement.
 
NJA_Capt said:
The bare piece of metal, immediately below the pedals, is not a structural panel. It is a thin trim piece that keeps larger objects from getting in the area. Most likely, one of the panel's screws came out in flight allowing the trim piece to flex and interferer with pedal movement.

Or...the pedals are rubbing on the sidewall panels.

Or...Something from behind the panel, such as a hose/wire fell behind a pedal, blocking movement.
Click to expand...
NJA is correct. If it really is just the sheet metal panel that is attached by PK screws, that's not structural and damage is probably one of the things he said. However the OP made it sound like it was actually the floorboards that were crumpled and that points to a hard landing on the nose.
 
NJA_Capt said:
The bare piece of metal, immediately below the pedals, is not a structural panel. It is a thin trim piece that keeps larger objects from getting in the area. Most likely, one of the panel's screws came out in flight allowing the trim piece to flex and interferer with pedal movement.

Or...the pedals are rubbing on the sidewall panels.

Or...Something from behind the panel, such as a hose/wire fell behind a pedal, blocking movement.
Click to expand...
NJA is correct. If it really is just the sheet metal panel that is attached by PK screws, that's not structural and damage is probably one of the things he said. However the OP made it sound like it was actually the floorboards that were crumpled and that points to a hard landing on the nose.
 
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