Interesting video about someone who recently has:
Lot of points here… and yes, that famous Swiss cheese 
As a starter, non-native English user, I would not call that a crash… Collins definition of plane crash: an accident in which an aircraft hits land or water and is damaged or destroyed. The misuse of the term crash always rings clickbait music to my ears 
Now we could debate bout the damage being large or small, etc, IMVHO I would call that an incident. Luckily.
The rest of the story is vey typical of what happens in these kind of cases, “remote” island or not, I could attest to that…
Having been at Bute quite recently, lovely place, I can easily relate to what happened. And can attest this kind of unfortunate event could happen to anyone of us.
That’s what insurance companies are for I dislike this Swiss cheese analogy. A bit of rain, higher than usual grass, slippery surface and so. It does not constitute a cheese, and there are no holes. These things happen, and they happen for one reason: Not paying attention to what is going on. They happen a lot, and they can happen to everyone. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen to everyone, but no one is immune.
The police with no clue what to do except “taking statements” is rather normal.
11/8/1993 I hit the fence aborting take-off on Stronsay, Orkney. Two of us with the farmer/Airfield Fire Service (one man) lifted the Jodel 1050 out of the ditch and the fence and pushed it to parking, where we tied it down. The wing leading edge was damaged and a prop blade broken, but backwards, not shockloading the engine. No injuries, except the island nurse, who arrived with the doctor, got nettle stings. The volunteer policeman turned up, and chatted.
I now phoned the AAIB, who had already been phoned 3 times. We had a coffee with the farmer, got a lift to the ferry, phoned the flying club at Inverness,and arranged to be met at Kirkwall Airport
I logged the Pa28 flight as Pu/t.
On 13/8 I logged Pu/t back to Kirkwall in the club Pa28, with the A&P. On 14/8 he had finished the temporary repair, and got a lift home on a birdwatchers charter plane.
On 15/8 I flew AD back to Inverness.
Insurance were great.
I have witnessed two incidents at Bute.
The best memory was a ‘well known’ Scottish pilot in a AA5. Did not make it and ended up almost exactly like the video. At one stage I counted 3 fire engines, 4 police cars, two ambulances, the Coastguard jeep, several locals, golfers, and I joked with one of the policemen that the only thing missing was SAR. As if on queue the whirl of rotor blades as the Sea King from Prestwick arrived and they all jumped out.
Made me proud to be a British taxpayer!!
On board the AA5 was the pilots grandson, aged 12, and he and the pilot got a lift from SAR back to Perth in the Sea King his home base due he knew the SeaKing captain.
All great Enid Blyton stuff. I eventually got clearance a number of hours later for my departure. On a note though Bute can be a pretty challenging strip, especially when the dreaded trees were there.
I often wonder about this when I land somewhere with no facilities. It reminds me of this famous crash. Basically the only option is to dismantle the whole thing and cart it out on a vehicle.
And even if e.g. a tyre is blown you are looking at a major exercise, getting a jack to some god forsaken place…
That’s what insurance companies are for
If the plane is rented i.e. belongs to somebody else, sure, but it’s never going to fly straight again.
Peter wrote:
If the plane is rented i.e. belongs to somebody else, sure, but it’s never going to fly straight again.
It’s part of the game as far as I’m concerned. If you can walk away from it, which you usually can, then things are just fine. I don’t see why that plane couldn’t fly straight after a fix.
You must have a really perfect maintenance industry up there in Norway
Having said all this, I don’t know of a solution. AFAICT most TBM owners carry a spare tyre in their front luggage compartment. But you still need a jack to change a tyre.
Now imagine a prop strike. Most European airfields have no hangarage. The process is going to be pretty difficult. Thank about it!
Few years ago friend of mine dinged his wing on a muddy “remote” field, in NW Scotland, during the initial take-off roll…
Undeterred, he rode the pax seat on the accompanying friend’s RV-4 to fly back home. Fetched his trailer and… loaded the spare wing he had. Spare wing? Yeah, the guy’s a serial builder, and was finishing his 2nd RV-7… so, drove the good wing to Scotland and made the exchange, before flying back home with the now fixed -7.
I don’t recall how he retrieved the trailer/damaged wing, but the wing was quite easily fixed later, and the incident RV still graces the Swiss, and surrounding, skies as of today
A good demonstration of what the homebuilding/experimental world offers: freedom, adventure, access to interesting, and sometimes challenging fields, self repairs in the elements. Flying, technology, friendship.
And we always have a good laugh listening to the story one more time
What is the actual difference though.
You can do work yourself or bring friends to help. I would have to bring an A&P and some helpers.
Both of us would need to organise a load of equipment to be brought to the scene.
If one walks away from it, I guess insurers have a well developed process for wreck recovery. But I would still like to be involved to make sure no extra damage is done.
