Don't expect too exciting a thread - it happened on the ground, thankfully.
It was meant to be a pleasant, non-eventful flight today from Sleap to Kemble for lunch. And it was...except we didn't make it back by the same means, which had been the plan. I took off, did a couple of circuits at Sleap, then took us to Kemble. The most exciting thing was nearly landing at deserted Aston Down, before realising my mistake, zooming up to 2000 ft again, and landing safely at Kemble.
After lunch we went out to the aircraft again, and I settled down to navigate while Paul did his pre-flight checks. I was just about to say jokingly, "That's not a very thorough full and free, is it", when I realised he actually couldn't move the ailerons. They were completely jammed!
Well, we found some maintenance men, and three of them worked on 'KF', trying to find out what was wrong, since we had less than two hours before we needed to leave if we were to make it back before dark. It soon became clear that it wasn't anything obvious, so we phoned a couple of flying schools there, and asked around, hoping to get an aerial lift back. We couldn't, and in the end it was three trains plus a taxi, getting us back to a deserted Sleap and our cars at 8.30 pm. The people at Kemble were wonderful, sorting out trains for us, and giving us a lift to the station. It's a great place, and the food is fantastic. But poor little KF is still at Kemble, and we're wondering what caused it.
Actually we were both pretty shaken up, thinking about what might have happened. It's not an emergency we've ever practised, or even heard of. I know what to do in theory - use secondary effects of rudder, and try to land on a nice long wide runway - but I've never tried it in anger and don't want to. We were so, so lucky it happened on the ground, not during my circuits at Sleap, or - worst of all - turning final at Kemble.
It was the unexpectedness of it all that shook us up. You kind of vaguely expect engine failure, or electrical failure, some day, but not this!!!!
Anyway, any thoughts as to what caused it? Someone suggested ice, as KF lives outside. I can't see it myself - we'd flown for an hour and a half, and she'd sat outside in the sun at Kemble for about the same length of time. She got back from her Annual fairly recently (three hours flying ago); could something have got detached or caught on a cable? Any other ideas? Hopefully we'll know in a day or two, but meanwhile....I think I'm just happy to be alive, with an aircraft that's still in one piece, even if presently unflyable.
