alaska airplane salvage--probably some of Richard's buddies

[ron74887]

20 minute video of airplane salvage in AK. I would think Richard knows these people. Crazy bunch using wood to temporarily repair a wing. sure the feds would love this inthe lower 48. Sent to me via JC from FL. Ron
hope it works!



http://www.optimaljet.com/OptimalJetHTM ... naHigh.htm

[GAHorn]

It is very interesting. clearly a promotion for the salvage company who salvages a Cessna 180/185 in the Alaska out back and flies it out.

I found it interesting because I was reminded of a time during my mispent youth, when I'd do anything for the chance to fly airplanes, and didn't think intelligence was a prerequisite.

It was the time I went to recover a wreck for my old employer, S&S Pipeline Patrol, and flew it out after making "emergency repairs". My repairs were not nearly as sophisticated as the one in that video, despite the fact that similar damage had been inflicted upon the airplane.

A new-hire had run low on gas near dark and landed in a pasture and next day attempted a takeoff across a barbed wire fence under construction. He caught the fencing and flipped the Cessna 140 onto it's back and abandoned it. I was asked by my boss to drive from Texas to Alabama and to evaluate the wreck and see if I could get it out of the field to an airport, and in the eagerness of youth, I didn't understand that he meant to disassemble it and trailer it.... I did what any retarded person would do...shucks, I was making $5/hour ...but only when I flew.... I used a rope and my car to pull the airplane and flip it back rightside up, hammered, bent, and twisted on it for a day or so and put in 10 gals of Enco (Exxon) best gas and 5 qts of their oil, and flew it out, over the fence, under the hightension lines, and up over the pine-forest of nearby Citronelle, Alabama. The whole town had turned out with blankets and fried chicken picnics to watch.

(All the effort they displayed in the above video worrying about wing-twist was probably unnecessary because the airplane I was in was damaged about equally, but I had not replaced any wing parts or spars or reinforced anything. I had just beat it back to resemble an airplane and it flew pretty well except it wanted to stall below 70 mph.)

The REST of the/my story:

Unlike the above-video, I didn't have a salvage company to help me and after I became airborne I realized I also had no charts or maps and dusk was rapidly approaching. So I took advantage of the only navigational aid I had available...the pipeline right of way the previous idiot was following when he got scared of the dark and landed in the field.

I followed it to Bogalusa, LA where it was now pitch-black....well-past dark, and when I turned downwind I worried about not being visible to any other airplanes because I'd discarded the upside-down battery before the hammering-repairs at Citronelle....I had no electrics and therefore no lights. Thankfully, there were no others in the traffic pattern.

I noticed that a strong shaft of light shot out of the hangar windows and a large number of cars were parked in the parking lot. I'd never seen so many cars parked at the Bogalusa airport before. (I'd landed there on previous pipeline inspection flights. The place was usually abandoned except for "Woody" who was the FBO/Airport Manager, a friend of my Boss.)

I turned base-leg and then final and landed. The tailwheel mainspring broke upon landing and a shower of sparks followed me all the way down the runway and taxyway to the hangar apron as the tail dragged the concrete.

I got out and walked into the hangar hoping to find Woody to ask him to store the airplane until my boss could drive over from Texas to evaluate the airplane. When I walked into the hangar, it was dark, yet full of people, all sitting in rows of chairs, apparently viewing a movie on one of those portable roll-up screens familiar to anyone who had a 8mm home-movie camera back in the '60's/'70's. I walked down the side of the room peering down each row of viewers searching for Woody's familiar profile. When I found him I sat down and asked him if he could store the wrecked plane in a solitary T-hangar or something until my Boss, Mr. Stevens could come look at it.

"Shhhhh", he whispered, not wanting to disturb everyone else trying to watch the movie.

Woody followed me out and saw the airplane and it's bent and broken right wing which actually had negative dihedral outboard of strut, caved in leading edges and flattened cabin roof and caved in wingtop surfaces of both wings.

"Holy Krapp!", he exclaimed. "Quick, help me push this thing into that other hangar over there and close the door!" It was somewhat difficult with that tailwheel spring scraping the concrete and the tailwheel flopping around on it's steering chains but we managed it, and got the door slid closed. (I remember thinking what a shame it was for the tail mainspring to have broken, because that tailwheel, held on by steering chains, had beaten those rudder-skins to smither-eens as it bounced and flailed around upon landing. It had been the only part on that entire airplane undamaged from the wreck, and now it was virtually destroyed too.) As we returned to the larger hangar, the film was concluding. The interior hangar lights were being turned back on, and everyone squinting from the brilliance of the hangar lights, as the final screen-shot appeared on the screen......"FAA SAFETY SEMINAR FILM No. 38".

The projector-operator was distracted shutting down and re-winding the film, and that's when I realized he was the FAA Inspector from New Orleans conducting an Aviation Safety Seminar. So THAT was the reason all the cars were in the parking lot!

[wingnut]

George,
In light of the above, and many other crazy stories you've told on yourself, it is very obvious that God is saving you for something very special Hope that's not to religious a statement to get this thread banished to the members only section

[akviperdriver]

That was a great story! Educational and entertaining!

[Harold Holiman]

George,

Is that why you still prefer to land after dark with no lights?

Harold

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

You know my plane wing isn't damaged nearly as bad as the one in Alaska and NOBODY here is even considering a ferry permit.

George George George what can I say. Another pipe line story.

[mit]

You know my plane wing isn't damaged nearly as bad as the one in Alaska and NOBODY here is even considering a ferry permit.

George George George what can I say. Another pipe line story.

If you could drive a car up next to it here they might not give one out.

[PilotMikeTX]

1. You might be a redneck pilot if...

2. Why'd they ruin a perfectly good piece of new sheet metal? I'm sure they could have salvaged a piece off the john boat or unwrapped the foil off some leftover hot dogs.

3. Now everyone up there is going rogue.

4. They were more worried about washout than the fact that the wing was held on by wood from the woodpile. There was also probably a few extra pounds of water sloshing around in there.

5. I guess having all your buddies fly in parts to cobble together a field repair is probably a lot more fun than having a helicopter either lift out the whole airplane or drop off a new wing.

[GAHorn]

...

5. I guess having all your buddies fly in parts to cobble together a field repair is probably a lot more fun than having a helicopter either lift out the whole airplane or drop off a new wing.

I have to admit that it crossed my mind as to why they didn't just swap that wing completely and be done with it, and then repair the damaged one if it was so desired. Sure would have addressed the outstanding issues of legality, ferry, insurance not to mention respect for life. (Must have been deemed impractical to fly in a wing is all I can figure.)

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Come on guys it's obvious. A full wing wouldn't fit in that Stinson though I'm sure they tried.

Slinging a wing under helicopter is much harder than you would think and cost probably as much as a new airplane maybe by the time your done.

[GAHorn]

I have seen an entire light-plane wing strapped to the floats on a Beaver transported. They had it wrapped in corrugated cardboard.

[PilotMikeTX]

Come on guys it's obvious. A full wing wouldn't fit in that Stinson though I'm sure they tried.

Slinging a wing under helicopter is much harder than you would think and cost probably as much as a new airplane maybe by the time your done.

Actually a Bell 206 runs about $800-$1000 per hour and could have easily flown a wing out and dropped it off. A UH-1 or 212/214 runs about $1800-2000/hour and could have easily lifted the plane out (probably by the lift rings that are already on the wings). Every helicopter charter operator in Alaska advertises aircraft recovery services. I'm sure coming up with a 180 wing is probably not as hard as one might think in Alaska. At any rate, assuming the plane was insured, it's going to be a lot less than the insured value of a C-180.

[blueldr]

Boy! What a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks!

[johneeb]

Boy! What a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks!

Dick, where have you been? We missed you.

[mit]

Boy! What a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks!

THANK YOU! I WAS GOING TO SAY THAT!