Malibu off-field landing near SAT 1/11

The plane looks in very good shape, except for perhaps a minor pranging on the guard rail. (Of course, a "minor" incident has been know to total a plane.)
 
Picked the right spot to land - right before the power lines. This pilot had a lucky day.
 
Without any facts or knowledge, my first question in my mind was "how much air was in the fuel tanks"?
 
How does one coordinate to cart that thing to the nearest airport? I figure it's not like you can unbolt the wings of a PA-46 in an hour by the Walmart oil change guy down the street and have a tow truck cart the parts to the airport. I've always wondered about the logistics of such an event. Towing a Malibu all the way to Boerne Stage with that wingspan seems impractical.
 
hindsight2020 said:
How does one coordinate to cart that thing to the nearest airport? I figure it's not like you can unbolt the wings of a PA-46 in an hour by the Walmart oil change guy down the street and have a tow truck cart the parts to the airport. I've always wondered about the logistics of such an event. Towing a Malibu all the way to Boerne Stage with that wingspan seems impractical.
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Add a couple gal of LL kick the tires and light the fires!!!
 
Bison Aviation will be overseeing the movement of the plane.


the pilot reported smoke in the cabin, a lot of smoke and was aiming to land in a field when he noted he was going to fast, trees in the near distance. He landed on the highway and his wingtip caught a sign and turned him 90 degrees. The nose gear hit the guard rail and collapsed.
 
That will be a $200k repair, been there, done that....
 
hindsight2020 said:
How does one coordinate to cart that thing to the nearest airport? I figure it's not like you can unbolt the wings of a PA-46 in an hour by the Walmart oil change guy down the street and have a tow truck cart the parts to the airport. I've always wondered about the logistics of such an event. Towing a Malibu all the way to Boerne Stage with that wingspan seems impractical.
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Probably fuel starvation. There are transport specialists all over the country. In Tex there is Lone Star Recovery. All these guys do is aviation recovery. How do they get steady business? Insurance claims. Recovery is typically covered by insurance so we have these guys picking up all manner of wrecks, excursions, and emergency landings. Many mechanics can and do recoveries, but these specialist have the trailers, cranes and cradles for airplanes ready to go.
 
Airplane was still off to the side of the road over one week after the landing.
 
Oooooh, so that's how they do it.... Man you gotta love youtube. I learned something new today.
I wonder how much that recovery bill was. I guess another reason to carry hull coverage. If I was liability-only there's no way that recovery expense would pencil out if I had to cover it out of pocket.

Witmo said:
Airplane was still off to the side of the road over one week after the landing.
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Wow. Really? Wonder what the hold up was. Guess I was right in my intuition recovering a 43ft wingspan airplane from a two lane road ain't exactly just calling Progressive and having a tow get to you 30 minutes after the fact like a car claim.

I can't believe TX DPS wouldn't say anything about leaving your airplane in situ on the narrow shoulder of a public roadway, much less for a week! Seems like there would be some public safety liability.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Oooooh, so that's how they do it.... Man you gotta love youtube. I learned something new today.
I wonder how much that recovery bill was. I guess another reason to carry hull coverage. If I was liability-only there's no way that recovery expense would pencil out if I had to cover it out of pocket.


Wow. Really? Wonder what the hold up was. Guess I was right in my intuition recovering a 43ft wingspan airplane from a two lane road ain't exactly just calling Progressive and having a tow get to you 30 minutes after the fact like a car claim.

I can't believe TX DPS wouldn't say anything about leaving your airplane in situ on the narrow shoulder of a public roadway, much less for a week! Seems like there would be some public safety liability.
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Don’t know the details but if in fact there wasn’t hull insurance on it, that would be the reason. DPS couldn’t find someone to pay to move it for a while. The local crane guy will want some money before he rolls out to that.
 
Was moved today.

the wings were place on a lowboy which was pulled by a winch truck.
I have a picture of the wings on the trailer and will post when I get the time.
 
hindsight2020 said:
...
I can't believe TX DPS wouldn't say anything about leaving your airplane in situ on the narrow shoulder of a public roadway, much less for a week! Seems like there would be some public safety liability.
Click to expand...

The airplane was moved over to where the shoulder of the road extended maybe 50 yards to a ranch fence. Traffic wasn't obstructed by the plane but people did slow down a lot to check out the airplane off to the side.
 
Fuselage will be moved today providing weather clears up
 
When I had a nose wheel collapse in Mexico, the recovery company wanted $30k to take off the wings and put it on a flatbed and haul it 1,000 miles. I opted to slap on a new prop, weld the nose gear down, get a ferry permit and fly it home to the mechanic.
 
I have a pic of wings on a flatbed but not sure how to post it
 
Nice to see that wing in one piece!
BTW, you can also cut and paste images into your post.
 
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