Isn’t “Vat” a tax?
At worst, we will have to wait for the official investigation report – if there ever comes one. Perhaps not, as there were no (physical) injuries and material damage was very limited.
I doubt that there will come much in terms of a report. According to one of the news articles, the pilot flew his plane home in the evening without repairs done or even an inspection by a qualified person. No evidence left behind so to say. A YouTube video and some broken fence posts is all there is.
Regarding weather stations: There are (at least) two non-aviation weather stations on the island so there will certainly be some recorded wind data. But Helgoland is a rocky island in the middle of the sea, so the wind at the airfield can be significantly different from that from the weather stations.
But Helgoland is a rocky island in the middle of the sea, so the wind at the airfield can be significantly different from that from the weather stations. Quote
Interestingly, when I arrived in northern Germany last fall, they were in the midst of some kind of hurricane. AWI staff, who operate at least one of the many weather stations on Helgoland told me that the highest windspeed ever was measured there that day, of 191 Kmh.
without repairs done or even an inspection by a qualified person. Quote
There are several angles to this. In theory, it is the pilot who determines the airworthiness of the aircraft before they decide to fly it. If they declare it airworthy, they can fly it – that’s the walk around inspection. However, any reason to suspect “hidden” damage should be cause to seek more expertise. But, be careful doing this on a Piper PA-28-161, I have never found a definition for “negligible damage” in a Piper maintenance manual, (which Cessna, and other manufacturers do in great breadth). Thus, to the letter of the rules, any detectable damage to a PiperPA-28-161, would render it “unairworthy”. Silly, I know, but a problem if you have a small dent (like hail damage), and a sticky maintenance person. For reasons I suspect I know, Piper did issue a service letter for the PA-28-200R, and PA-44, so if you dent one of those, you’ve got a chance…
