cgartly wrote:I do not know the owner/pilot of the aircraft personally but I do know of him and have heard a couple of things from someone close to him.
- Yes he screwed up and forgot to put the gear down
- He doesn't have hull insurance so he will be paying to fix this himself
- The wrecker that picked the plane up did not position straps properly nor did they use wide enough straps so there is now significant recovery damage as well on the fuselage.
Hurts to see this video. Thin straps, expensive hull noises when they lift it, but of course the gear drops and locks when he selects "down".
They used a friggen tow truck to lift it? Narrow straps, no bar to spread them out and ensure it was being lifted on its center of gravity, boom too short, people reefing on non-structural parts to position and steady it.
I know there has got to be a least one crane operator in Oliver, which would have been cheap compared to the damage caused by this fiasco!
That's what impatientce gets one. You would have thought at the very least some old mattresses, blankets, foam, etc. could have been rounded up to help mitigate some damage. Nope, Get 'er done!
That was painful to watch. I can't believe the used such a small truck and such dinky straps. As was mentioned they probably did some serious damage there!
Big Pistons Forever wrote: What were they thinking
One of the things I've found is that when shit like this happens, people's brains often aren't thinking for a fair chunk of time. Probably the best thing to do when an airplane comes to grief like this is to let her sit, everyone sleep on it and then come back and think more clearly through what needs to be done.
If it was absolutely necessary to hoist the airplane with only a winch truck available, there would have been ways to do it to get it back on its wheels much safer and with substantially less damage. Suprising we didn't see a video of someone losing some fingers there or getting injured. A real crane would be preferable of course.
Doc wrote:Can't be a heavy airplane? Must have jacking points? A few guys, some mattresses and a wee jack. A case of ice cold beer, and it's all done?
KISS
2414 lbs BEW
A longer boom with those straps and some "cushion" even would have done the job. This video should be required viewing for anyone planning to "lift" any aircraft...of things not to do.
I expected to see some injuries with the way all of those folks were around the aircraft. Thankfully nobody got hurt but there were some potential candidates for a Darwin Award if something went bad.
Recovery of the Nanchang CJ-6A (C-FTQW) that landed gear-up Western Warbirds Association (WWA) meeting at the Oliver Airport (CAU3) in BC Canada [September 07, 2013].
I'd like to collectively post "+1" to all the comments about what an embarrassing display of poor judgement that recovery was!
In the number of recoveries I have assisted with, we have never damaged an aircraft more, unless it was a total wreck, and we planned to. Unless a person is at risk, there is just no reason!
Extraordinary. All I could do was shake my head for five minutes while I watched that. It wasn't on the runway, there should have been no rush to move it.
Somebody mentioned something about wrecker operator liability a while back. Having seen the video now and that they were talking about using an actual wrecker, I think all liability falls upon whoever made the phone call to the towing company and not a crane company.
Maybe just it's just projection, but I get the impression the person holding the camera had a pretty good idea of how the show was going to go.
A little off topic (OK, just barely on topic at all), but is anyone else checking in on this absolute opposite of the spectrum recovery effort going on today?: Concordia Recovery
Thinking about it further... Would it have made more sense to pick it up by the crankshaft? The towtruck lifting the heavy end, and 20 stout warbird pilots on the wings and tail, and maybe they could have hoisted it far enough to drop the gear? Not meant to criticise... There's been enough of that already. Just wondering out loud and making mental notes for the next time this happens (mind you, the last one I heard of it happening to was a T-28... I don't know how they lifted it, but i'd bet it wasn't a towtruck...
