A sad sight greeted me at the airport...

timwinters

timwinters

Ejection Handle Pulled
Joined
Feb 23, 2008
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13,732
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Conway, MO
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LTD
...when I pulled in this morning...

KLBO

:(

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Ugh. Looks repairable. She'll fly again.

New MT Prop, Engine rebuild, RH ldg gear, Right wing goes to airframe components. Hopefully the gearbox is okay.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Ugh. Looks repairable. She'll fly again.

New MT Prop, Engine rebuild, RH ldg gear, Right wing goes to airframe components. Hopefully the gearbox is okay.
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I don't know, the right leg was torn plum off. You can see that the fuselage was tweaked...'cause the bottom of the windshield popped out...what you can't see is that the top of the cowl was pulled a good 1" forward. Ripped all the screws out. (you can see it if you zoom in) Looks like the engine/mount was bent downwards quite a bit.
 
timwinters said:
I don't know, the right leg was torn plum off. You can see that the fuselage was tweaked...'cause the bottom of the windshield popped out...what you can't see is that the top of the cowl was pulled a good 2" forward. Ripped all the screws out. Looks like the engine/mount was bent downwards quite a bit.
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Beegles will do it. I just hope the owner adequately insured it.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Did that get derecho'd, or ground looped?
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Ground looped


NoHeat said:
It looks like the prop was turning, with symmetrical damage to both prop ends.

Curious that no tail number is visible.
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tail number is on the tail...can't make it out in these photos...purposely...I googled it...Delaware corporation (i.e. tax dodger). Hard telling where it's actually based. We're not familiar with it at LBO.
 
Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.
 
Looks like a ground loop. Looks like a lot of damage too. Unless owner has a real fondness for it looks like it might get totaled.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Ugh. Looks repairable. She'll fly again.

New MT Prop, Engine rebuild, RH ldg gear, Right wing goes to airframe components. Hopefully the gearbox is okay.
Click to expand...

No way, the repair cost would be greater than than the price of the plane. (Unless the owner is capable of doing it themselves, and still). I would call a salvage company.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
No way, the repair cost would be greater than than the price of the plane. (Unless the owner is capable of doing it themselves, and still). I would call a salvage company.
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Have you looked at the prices of skywagons lately? That's a 150k airplane, if not more. I just hope the owner adequately insured.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
No way, the repair cost would be greater than than the price of the plane. (Unless the owner is capable of doing it themselves, and still). I would call a salvage company.
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Mtns2Skies said:
Have you looked at the prices of skywagons lately? That's a 150k airplane, if not more. I just hope the owner adequately insured.
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Bingo.
Somebody is going to repair it and get it flying again, regardless whether the current owner was adequately insured.
There just aren't any adequate substitutes for Skywagons, short of building one of the larger E-ABs (Murphy? Bearhawk? Something like that?).
 
I would take it! I'm not sure I would pay much for it, but I'd love to bring it back to life.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Have you looked at the prices of skywagons lately? That's a 150k airplane, if not more. I just hope the owner adequately insured.
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New right wing (look at the sheet metal, it’s not just the obvious bent section, there is ripples further inboard). I’m assuming the wing is constructed in 2 sections, not like a Mooney where it’s 1 continuous structure.
Landing gear and possibly spar damage .
New prop.
Overhaul the engine.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
New right wing (look at the sheet metal, it’s not just the obvious bent section, there is ripples further inboard). I’m assuming the wing is constructed in 2 sections, not like a Mooney where it’s 1 continuous structure.
Landing gear and possibly spar damage .
New prop.
Overhaul the engine.
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Yes.
One of my friends who runs a maintenance shop says "The nicer looking the Skywagon, the bigger the last wreck was". :)
 
GRG55 said:
Yes.
One of my friends who runs a maintenance shop says "The nicer looking the Skywagon, the bigger the last wreck was". :)
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I don't know of a Skywagon that hasn't been looped. Mine was in the early 2000's.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
So finding a used wing will be impossible? I can’t imagine what a new one would cost, if you could get it.
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There are several companies that rebuild them. Airframe Components is the premier one, they just put it in a jig and repair what's needed. I'm not sure why you would have to buy new when all of the parts for a wing are readily available. It's a spar, ribs and sheetmetal. It's not a Falcon Rocket.
 
Sad indeed.
This was a new owner at the first fuel stop on the way home with it.
Guy who sold it spent several years and a bunch of money getting the skywagon fixed up.
 
bgreenhaw said:
Sad indeed.
This was a new owner at the first fuel stop on the way home with it.
Guy who sold it spent several years and a bunch of money getting the skywagon fixed up.
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That is painful. Since I bought my 185, I'm having more fun flying than ever before. But it's been a journey of near misses. If I'd wrecked it on the way home, I'd be flying a 206 and telling everyone how dangerous taildraggers are.
 
Sad a total rebuild is probably cost prohibitive.
 
frfly172 said:
Sad a total rebuild is probably cost prohibitive.
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Depends on if the spar carry-through structure and the landing gear bulkhead/door post structure was tweaked. But it doesn't look like it from the pics. As mentioned above, given the value on this model line, this one would definitely be a candidate for repair and at a profit. The few 180 series projects I did had greater margins than any 170 series project I worked on. And if I wasn't retired I would have been on the phone the second after these pics had been posted.;)
 
bgreenhaw said:
Sad indeed.
This was a new owner at the first fuel stop on the way home with it.
Guy who sold it spent several years and a bunch of money getting the skywagon fixed up.
Click to expand...

That seems to be a story I've heard repeated before. We had a gentleman purchase an experimental bi-plane from our airport years ago did the same thing. Fortunately survived, but totalled the bipe and a couple of other planes he encountered.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Is the Skywagon more challenging to handle than other taildraggers?
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So they say. Idk. I will say this, though: some taildraggers have a lot of wing and not much engine. Some have a lot of engine and not much wing. The Skywagon has a lot of both, which potentially multiples the ways to get into trouble.
 
Tantalum said:
it is accidents like that that always make me shake my head when somebody says that flying small planes is inherently dangerous
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If that’s what it takes to keep me from getting complacent, I’m OK with it. Besides, are motorcycles about as dangerous as light planes? Caution, thread drift warning!
 
Crashnburn said:
are motorcycles about as dangerous as light planes
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allegedly.. but for every motorcycle crash that wasn't the driver's fault, OR, was because the driver was doing something stupid.. you have an airplane crashing because it's flying VFR in 150 yard visibility. Statistically they might be similar, but that doesn't mean if you or I get on a bike or fly a plane our chances of death are the same

Plus, statistics are almost meaningless down to the individual level, the "standard deviation" (so to speak) in individual flying habits, types, etc., are just too great to draw meaningful conclusions
 
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