Tailstrike question?

popaviator

popaviator

Well-Known Member
Has anyone had any experience with a tail strike before? I was preflighting with a new student today and he said why is there a wire sticking out from the bottom of the rudder? I saide to myself..."what the hell"? I checked the bottom part of the rudder and all the paint was scraped off like somebody filed down the bottom. The back fin tab was also about to fall off. Then there were cracks all over the bottom like puzzle pieces and then a white wire dangling out. So that got me thinking....the guy before me was just hired by our company and maybe he doesn't want anyone to know about something like this his fist week on the job...still though... :banghead:... you could spot it easily. So if you tail strike is it easy to feel from the pilots perspective?
 
I've had a tail strike in a Cessna 172 before, not really that big of a deal really. Take a look at most 172 tail tie downs and you'll probably notice that the bottom has been ground away (at least if it's been used in a training fleet). I actually managed to do it while demonstrating keeping the nose wheel off the ground on landing to my student. I pulled back too far while moving too quickly and could hear the thing scrape.

Got back to the FBO, took a look at it, mechanic took a look at it and shrugged. I think he told me to blame it on my student, less I have to live it down when the other instructors find out I made such a basic miscalculation :)
 
I hope that the tail strike was reported to MTX and you didn't fly the airplane until it was checked out. You have no idea of what possible damage was done to skin, frame or cables. When we had our planes at a flight school I would regularly attend owners meetings with the manger/owner of the flight school. One airplane in particular had had a tail strike and it did some severe damage which required significant loss of revenue for the owner. The culprit was identified and a bill was mailed. A good reason to have renters insurance!!!
 
I had a tailstrike once in my Private training doing some aerodynamic braking and pulled back a little bit too far. My instructor didn't even really say anything about it except for a "oopf." I'm sure he had it out of his head within 10 seconds of it happening. We had the 172's with the tailskids that protects the rear tie downs, though.

Martin,
I would have MX look at it and let your boss know before you fly it. But that's me...I'm not an instructor but I wouldn't want to get canned over something I found during the preflight that was not a direct result of my/my student's actions.
 
Good reason to do preflights, and postflights.
Tailstrikes can put tremendous loads on the airframe at one of the weakest points, especially in small aircraft (the fuselage forward of the empanage ).
One of the deadliest aircraft accidents in history was caused by an improperly repaired tailstrike incident years before.
 
a couple of the planes we have even have an extra bit of steel looped around the tail tie down just for this purpose. Not to intentionally strike the tail but to prevent damage when it does happen.

I'm not sure what you mean by "back fin tab", but slight damage (scrapes and cracks) to the bottom rudder cap is rather common and shouldn't be worried about too much.

I know someone that broke a tie down hook clear off the airplane with a tail strike, honest it wasn't me, but I've had a couple of them in the past (usually when you are trying to impress some people in the back seat of a 172)
 
Diamond built skid plates into the 20s and the 40s.

I have never struck one myself, but every single one I have flown had scrape marks.
 
OldTownPilot said:
a couple of the planes we have even have an extra bit of steel looped around the tail tie down just for this purpose. Not to intentionally strike the tail but to prevent damage when it does happen.
Click to expand...

I had those on our club airplanes for a while, but what I noticed was that with the guards on, when a tail strike did happen the damage was often worse than without. One tore the tail tiedown mount completely through the bottom skin. Since then I have gotten rid of them. I still occasionally have to replace a tiedown ring or mount, but haven't had to patch any skin since.
 
Yep! Had a tailstrike once in a 152...I remember it like it was yesterday.

First flight with new student, coming to me with a Private and working towards his commercial. I think we started with a soft field take-off and scraaape. Oh crap! I learned my lesson.

Fortunately there was a tail skid (curved springy metal piece) right below the tie down point.
 
Yup, every once in a while. Just did it today as a matter of fact. Doing a soft field takeoff with a person in the back, didn't realize how easy the tail comes down.
 
Roger said:
Yup, every once in a while. Just did it today as a matter of fact. Doing a soft field takeoff with a person in the back, didn't realize how easy the tail comes down.
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:yeahthat:

I did it a few weeks ago doing a practice soft field takeoff on a grass runway with someone in the back of a 172. :o

We have metal tabs that protect the tail-tie down (and has no paint left on it) as these planes are used for a lot of training.
 
I had one in a 182 RG when I was giving instruction. Doubler plates and skids help lots, but it's still worthy of inspection. The sweet spot for landing a 182 RG is about 14 inches. To prevent it from happening I'd put the student in the cockpit and have them look to the horizon, I'd get out (engine isn't running) and push the tail down until they were in landing attitude. Then after they said they saw what it looked like, I'd push the tail down to touch the ground and repeat the process.

The student would figure out pretty quickly, that in a 182RG if you can't see the end of the runway in the flare, you're dragging the tail.

Good luck,
LC
 
LostComm said:
and push the tail down until they were in landing attitude. Then after they said they saw what it looked like, I'd push the tail down to touch the ground and repeat the process.
Click to expand...

Haven't flown a cessna in a while but I think there was one model where people were damaging the leading spar in the horiz stab by pushing down on it to push it. Don't remember which one, and not saying that is wrong , but I cringe to think about putting loads on a critical surface that wasn't designed for it.
 
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