Would this plane have flown?

I guess I got lucky that the guy who hit me had a sat phone on him.
Otherwise I would have been faced with the decision. Either fly it out
of there as-is or abandon the plane there.

Well, at that point the insurance company owns the plane. Do you want
to do them a favor that badly?

Jose
--
Nothing takes longer than a shortcut.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I'm not sure about the Mexican rules or even Customs duties
on bringing the repaired airplane back. But a visit to the
FSDO by the A&P before he came to Mexico, with the proper
details would have resulted in a quick issuance of a Special
Airworthiness Certificate [ferry permit] and the A&P would
make such repairs as needed before signing the logbook and
the certificate to make the flight legal. You would also
want to contact your insurance company because most aircraft
insurance policies are restricted to "when a valid standard
airworthiness certificate" is on the airplane. A ferry
permit is not a standard airworthiness certificate and your
insurance is not in force. That would be a violation of
Mexican law.
Also, not informing your insurance company makes it
difficult or impossible to recover damages from the truck
driver.

Since the airplane was US registered and the work was done
by a US A&P, the FAA would have issued the permit within a
hour. But Mexican labor law might have also required that
you hire a Mexican mechanic to supervise.

I hope you flew it back solo and sent the family by airline
or bus.


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...
| A ferry permit could be issued for such a
| condition and an inspection for range of motion,
security,
| etc signed of by an A mechanic and of course it would be
| finally up to the pilot whether to fly. I would not
want to
| fly it IFR, most ferry permits only allow Day/VFR.
|
| One of the reasons I didn't want to try for the permit is
because I
| just don't know what the procedure would have been, but I
expect it
| would have taken months. The initial inspection would have
had to have
| been done by an A&E and then approved by Mexico City.
However, then
| comes the custom's duties, etc. Finally, I'd need an A&P
to look at it
| before I entered the U.S. (or right after entering, I
don't recall).
| So I kept very, very quiet about it. I didn't tell the
Mexicans about
| it and didn't mention anything to U.S. customs.I believe
that
| technically both the A&P and I could have both been
arrested since I
| believe it is totally illegal for an A&P to do any major
repair without
| an A&E present.
|
| I guess I got lucky that the guy who hit me had a sat
phone on him.
| Otherwise I would have been faced with the decision.
Either fly it out
| of there as-is or abandon the plane there.
|

On 2006-03-22, Robert M. Gary wrote:
http://www.thegaryhouse.com/aircraftdamage/

I was down in a remote area of Mexico this last weekend and a truck
backed into my aileron.

One thing to watch out for on seemingly minor damage near the outboard
edges of wings is a bent spar. Think of how much torque on the inboard
part of the wing that an impact to even make a small dent would make.
Needless to say, kinked spars are vastly weaker than unkinked spars.

Our club had a Cessna 170 - someone put the wingtip into a hangar at
taxi speed making a small dent in it. It also made a small kink in the
aft spar even though it was at low speed and seemingly only cosmetic
damage - the spar had to be repaired before the aircraft was airworthy
again.

I believe Highflyer has a story about hitting a wingtip of a Taylorcraft
on a pole at taxi speed - the damage appeared merely cosmetic but
the aft spar fractured in flight, which could have quite easily been fatal.
The torque from hitting the wingtip on the pole caused a compression
fracture in the wooden spar.

--
Dylan Smith, Port St Mary, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net

Would it have flown, probably. Did you do the right thing, definitely.


"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...
http://www.thegaryhouse.com/aircraftdamage/

I was down in a remote area of Mexico this last weekend and a truck
backed into my aileron. I was lucky that the driver had a sat phone and
I was able to call an A&P to come down to Mexico and swap it for me.
However, all the local pilots, and the A&P who came down seemed to
think it would have flown ok as was. From a simply academic point of
view I"m curious what you guys think.

-Robert

"Dan Luke" wrote in message

Most likely it would have flown fine--perhaps a bit out of trim.

It is not impossible that the deformed control surface would have
fluttered, with possibly disastrous results.


That would have been my take -- a little right wing down, and some
fluttering. Dudley made the right call, though. What you can't see is any
potential damage to the attach point.

Bottom line...you were obviously uncomfortable with it, and made a no
go call....NO shame in that...good call

Jamie A. Landers
PP-ASEL

Well, at that point the insurance company owns the plane. Do you want
to do them a favor that badly?

That's easy to say now. However, that really means that you may never
see your bird again and rather than a 2 hour flight to the states you
are looking at spending the next 2 days barfing in the back of a
pickup.

-Robert

Well the local Mooney service center just sent their estimate to the
insurance company. They are recommending a factory new aileron.
Although they are certified and equipped to rebuild them, they say
they've never seen anyone rebuild a Mooney aileron and get it straight.
Apparently the factory is able to do something the service centers
can't do. When I look at the aileron it looks like a bunch of ribs with
some skin on them. The service center is saying there are no ribs in
the aileron and the construction is different. In any case, I sure hope
my insurance company is able to claim against the truck's Mexican
liability coverage. It shouldn't be a problem but the total cost is
looking to be around $4K. The service center is also saying that there
may be a bent rod under the seat, but they haven't actually seen the
plane yet, this is just their Mooney experience. They don't seem
concerned about structural issues at all. The Mooney structure is very
different than a Cessna or Piper and considered much stronger (ever see
the picture of the entire factory floor assembly team standing on top
of a Mooney wing, two people deep?)

-Robert

What you can't see is any potential damage to the attach point.

Is there actually an "attach point" in the normal sense? I've never
taken one of these apart but my undetstanding is that its a one piece
solid wing and the body of the plane rests on top of the wing. I've
seen the wings removed and they are one solid piece (not two wings like
a Cessna).

-Robert

Bob;
I think John is referring to the outer attach point for the aileron, not the
wing attach points, at least this was the attach point I was referencing.
Dudley

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...
What you can't see is any potential damage to the attach point.

Is there actually an "attach point" in the normal sense? I've never
taken one of these apart but my undetstanding is that its a one piece
solid wing and the body of the plane rests on top of the wing. I've
seen the wings removed and they are one solid piece (not two wings like
a Cessna).

-Robert