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What happens when you have a prop strike or gear-up in a place with no facilities?

Let’s say you have a prop strike at some place which has no hangarage and no means of engine lifting. You need to take the engine and prop off and come back with “fixed” ones, perhaps a few months later.

It is quite an exercise organising all that.

In the meantime the plane is going to rot, and if it is something nice it may get vandalised.

I have often wondered what the insurance company is willing to pay for.

Helicopter recovery is obviously very rare.

I know of one TB21GT which had a gear up landing in Turkey and the insurer just paid for it to be dismantled and carted back to (Switzerland I think) on a truck.

Even if there is security (and there is at bigger airports) there is often still no hangarage where the “wreck” could be stored.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I dont know, but you would guess that like anything with insurance it must be determined by the ratio of hull value to recovery cost. I guess in that equation the cost of cutting it up and disposal would also need to be factored in.

Often removal of the wings and a low loader is a viable and not necessarily overly costly solution.

I agree the storage aspects are a concern, and, didnt, as but example the pilot, who landed at Plymouth after it closed find that to be true, while everyone wrangled about flying the aircraft out.

I recall my first landing efffectively in a field in France some years ago. It was on the top of a hill adjoining a vineyard. The owner of course said “there is no problem” its in good shape. The reality was for me it was a challenging approach, narrow and rough. After landing it hit home that there was really nothhing there, and it would have been almost impossible to get anything in or out, other than on the back of a tractor, or beneath a rotary. Even more so, I landed on a Scottish loch in a float. I think the nearest road was 40 miles away, there were not tracks, only way in, a days hike. Even the tractor would not have been an option. I guess it would have been strictlyy rotary transport, or it would have been sunk in the lock and forgotten about. Of course in some places this is the norm.

I think it’s not really a big deal. Everyone who works at is used to recovering aircraft. Be that going and changing out an engine and flying it out of there…. or taking it apart… or as you say taking it out by helicopter if needs be. I’ve had friends who overturned seaplanes in the water. That is a much bigger problem as there may not be as much as a friendly shore to work on. People with seaplanes can end up in unique situations that would make the heads of landplane pilots spin. Imagine sitting on a clump of rocks in the middle of a lake in Scotland.

An aircraft that was damaged at Fair Isle costed the price of a couple of C150’s to get back to an engineering shop to repair. Recovair at Thruxton generally do all these jobs.

Buying, Selling, Flying
EISG, Ireland

From an insurance point of view, quite a few such airplanes may end up totalled as the recovery cost alone would blow the total value.

So the remote place may end up with a free gate guard…

On the other hand, depending on where it is, with the airfield density around most parts of Northern and Central Europe I’d say any maintenance shop should be able to drive over a mobile crane and get the job done. And depending on the severity, fit a new prop and get a one time permit to fly it to maintenance can also work, then take the engine down there.

A good investment in any case, hangarage or not, are good airplane covers. In which case you cover it and it will be fine outside as well for a few weeks.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

There are plenty of aeroplanes which have their wings and tailplane removed and are then containerised. Many perfectly serviceable aircraft have this done, it’s often cheaper than a long ferry flight, such as from the US to Europe. I sold a Super Cub some years ago and the buyer did this in a day and shipped it to Thailand.

Darley Moor, Gamston (UK)

You can send a working party to recover the aircraft on-site, even with an inflatable hangar to work inside.
It is not cheap thought, but it can be done. Maybe it is not the best idea if you have to dismantle the engine completely and/or you need a lot of ground support equipment, but can work for many other situations. At the end of the day, if the insurance is paying, they will decide.

LECU - Madrid, Spain

Am I just foolish, or is it an option just to bring a new prop, fly the aircraft out to the nearest place with facilities, and then deal with the engine / shock load? If there is any shock load damage to the engine, does this risk in-flight failure, or just a bit more damage to the engine?

(assuming paperwork can be obtained or omitted)

Biggin Hill

The damage to my aircraft in the Scillies was actually not huge. Nosewheel collapse and one engine stopped by grass at idle.

Had it happened at Biggin, I would probably have been flying again within a month.

But with no facilities at Scilly, we would have needed to charter a ship, which completely precluded doing anything but write it off.

The insurance company was superb.

EGKB Biggin Hill

Clearly some pretty aggressive grass.

I mean it struck turf rather than tarmac, so the shock loading would have less. Sorry not to spell that out; my bad.

EGKB Biggin Hill
34 Posts
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