I was faced with this a few years back.
I precautionary landed my old 520 after oil pressure went to zero on a very desolated airfield in New Mexico named Vaughn (N17). Not a living soul could be seen, or any other airplanes. There were literally tumbleweeds blowing across the tarmac. All the hangars were locked and looked like they hadn’t been opened in decades. The nearest town was in effect deserted and had no hotel or any kind of facilities. I wasn’t even sure anyone lived there at all. So never mind trying to get a mechanic there, how on earth would I be able to get out of there and find alternate modes of transportation to get to my destination?
Took a breath, let the engines cool off, checked the levels, kicked the tires and prayed as I started her up again: oil pressure returned on the offending engine. Phew! Before it even had time to change its mind, I gunned the throttles and took off from there. Maybe not the safest thing to do, but I felt I had almost no other choice. Oil pressure held up pretty much all the way ‘til Wichita Falls, Texas, where I finally managed to get it repaired at the airfield. It was an oil pressure relief valve that had gotten some carbon stuck in it, so wasn’t actually anything worse.
If you’re stuck in a desolated place, worldwide, either on or off an airfield/strip, it might be worth considering GEOS:
https://www.geostravelsafety.com/sar-memberships.html
One of their SAR plans for $30/year, gives you $100k cover.
You will have to use an approved device to make contact:
https://www.geostravelsafety.com/geos-supported-devices.html
It’s not comprehensive; I understand SpiderTracks is also a supported device.
The guy who inspects my plane sometimes recovers aircraft for insurance – the usual thing is to disassemble and take it out on a truck. It’s not very hard to do with a typical tube and fabric taildragger. It’s going to be a fairly quick job to get the wings off any high wing externally braced SEP so you can load it all onto a trailer (well, unless you’re talking about a huge one like a Caravan).
Presumably defuelling is quite a job?
For a typical small SEP, not really. We de-fuel ours all the time (to keep the weight down when towing gliders, it’s nice to have the aux tank empty). Jerry cans and a pump to get the siphon going, and a grounding line are generally enough. In the case of recovering an Auster (or a Cub, or a Taylorcraft, or anything similar) with a failed engine out of a field, the fuel tanks are all in the fuselage anyway so you probably don’t even need to defuel it.
However, depressingly often, aircraft need to be removed from fields that are too small to take off in again due to what can be described as “an excessive quantity of air in the fuel tanks”. In that case, defuelling isn’t really an issue!
alioth wrote:
We de-fuel ours all the time
What do you do with the removed fuel? Here (US, California), it has to be disposed of as hazmat. A few months ago the fuel strainer valve on the 210 I fly failed in flight (likely cause was some condensed water freezing, cracking the seal and then thawing – the airplane was parked outside in minus 16C overnight). The fuel that was removed from the tank had to be disposed of.
We put it back in the plane later. (The aux tank only holds 60L, that’s 3 jerry cans worth, so it’s not hard to keep it back for later flights).
Just have a friend fly-in a new prop while having pancakes, fit it, fly away:
and worry about paperwork in a parallel universe …
Xtophe wrote:
worry about paperwork in a parallel universe
I think it has a big “experimental” on the backseat 
End of all recovery worries and safes you hangarage as well and enables you to do all mainenance at home – or bring it to any shop in any weather also outside airport opening hours, and avoid hangar rash and refuel at the car station and……
Just buy a Europa 
