From AV Web here:

https://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Suit-Launched-In-Toilet-Collision-229919-1.html?ET=avweb:e3853:307389a:&st=email

Suit Launched In Toilet Collision

A Utah pilot is suing a local environmental group for damages to his airplane after he hit a camouflaged portable toilet on a backcountry air strip placed “on or very near” the landing surface at Hidden Splendor airstrip. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Wayne Grant claims in his suit that he surveyed the clifftop runway to look for obstacles before flying away to set up for landing. He alleges that while he was momentarily out of the immediate area, someone allegedly affiliated with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance put two portapotties “painted in colors than nearly perfectly matched” the terrain in his way. He didn’t see the biffies until the last second and couldn’t swerve to avoid them without going over the cliff.

The airplane’s wing was damaged and had to be repaired on the mountain before it could be flown away. The suit says the environmental group, which was holding an event at the airstrip, should have known better than to put the toilets where an airplane might hit them. “Planes have wings, and require sufficient clear space around the airstrip for those wings in order to land safely,” the newspaper quoted the claim as saying.

All backcountry toilets should be painted international orange. Wish a greeny would have been leaving a browney.

Tim

Sounds like an honest mistake if you ask me. What I think is ridiculous is that the pilot believes that he could have seen them from the air, yet he couldn't see them in the landing roll in time to avoid them.

It's an airstrip, and the people who placed the shitters there need to pony up and pay for the damages, but I don't read anything in the article that makes it sound intentional.

Uh oh! Oops! Makes me wonder why they thought they could have an event on or near a runway.


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SUWA has traditionally held an event on or around the airstrip for years. Up until a few years ago, the UBCP would put out a warning listing the dates of the event and to stay away for the weekend. No idea what has changed: no more coordination between the two?
There have been past cases of people intentionally "blocking" the runways at Hidden Splendor and Mexican Mtn with logs, rocks and such.
Makes me wonder it the SUWA event was a week or two before, and someone "forgot" to remove the camo potties?

Why no rudder turn/turn/turn back in low ground effect. Short part of airplane (cabin to prop) passes lew and then back down runway. First push rudder away from john hard, wing tip toward john will point at john. Now push rudder toward john hard. Prop will pass by john. Finally push rudder away from john hard and continue down runway.

Kids don't try this at home, but crop dusters do it all the time. And telephone poles are harder than portapotties.

I'm sorry but trying to understand what the hell your saying gives me a headache.

It should not have been there, and.... he should have seen it and/or avoided it. A shitty deal all around, but he must have thought he was landing at a towered airport, see and avoid! But if he wants to sue the group and rattle their cage a bit, I'm all for that also.

I'm reminded of a previous incident




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I hate when that happens!

Balloon pilot likely couldn't see them until it was too late - the green blends right into the surroundings.


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I would like to hear THE REST OF THE STORY as Paul Harvey used to say. Did he land and taxi into them? Hit a tip on landing? End or middle of runway? Just kind of seems strange to me.
DENNY

Interesting story.

I flew into Hidden Splendor a few years with one of the Redtail Aviation pilots with me in order to get familiarized with the area.

He mentioned that one needs to look very closely at HS before landing due to "other users" putting things on the runway to deter plane landing in "their" canyon.

From this it sounds that was sage advice.

TD

Grassstrippilot wrote:Uh oh! Oops! Makes me wonder why they thought they could have an event on or near a runway.


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Some years ago when the Colorado Pilots were still having the annual Marble, CO, fly-in, there were the usual 40-50 airplanes at both ends of the strip. We awoke on Sunday morning to see a big tent right in the middle of the runway, with a pickup parked beside it, apparently erected during the night. You can't tell me that, even in the dark, the tenters were unaware that they were on an airstrip, with so many airplanes there. But there are some folks who go through life clueless, and you have to wonder how they made it as far as they have.

Cary

TomD wrote:........I flew into Hidden Splendor a few years with one of the Redtail Aviation pilots with me in order to get familiarized with the area. He mentioned that one needs to look very closely at HS before landing due to "other users" putting things on the runway to deter plane landing in "their" canyon. ...

Hammer wrote:Sounds like an honest mistake if you ask me. .... I don't read anything in the article that makes it sound intentional.

Sounds pretty clear to me--someone with a hurray for me and fuck you attitude sabotaged the runway.
This is the same thing to me as someone stringing wire between trees across a dirt bike trail,
because you don't like their (in your eyes) eco-unfriendly (although legal) use of the area.

I could agree it was an honest mistake if this was an off-airport clearing, but since it was a recognized (and probably well-marked-out) runway-- no way. Everyone's treating it as a big joke since it was a shithouse on the runway, but it might just as well have been an irplane-sized hole with a camo tarp over it.... or a claymore.

akgreg wrote:I'm sorry but trying to understand what the hell your saying gives me a headache.

Omg someone finally said it.

hotrod180 wrote:

TomD wrote:........I flew into Hidden Splendor a few years with one of the Redtail Aviation pilots with me in order to get familiarized with the area. He mentioned that one needs to look very closely at HS before landing due to "other users" putting things on the runway to deter plane landing in "their" canyon. ...

Hammer wrote:Sounds like an honest mistake if you ask me. .... I don't read anything in the article that makes it sound intentional.

Sounds pretty clear to me--someone with a hurray for me and fuck you attitude sabotaged the runway.
This is the same thing to me as someone stringing wire between trees across a dirt bike trail,
because you don't like their (in your eyes) eco-unfriendly (although legal) use of the area.

I could agree it was an honest mistake if this was an off-airport clearing, but since it was a recognized (and probably well-marked-out) runway-- no way. Everyone's treating it as a big joke since it was a shithouse on the runway, but it might just as well have been an irplane-sized hole with a camo tarp over it.... or a claymore.

I love how people villainize the motives and actions of groups they see as Other-Than-Them... Since they don't think the way I do, they must be wrong, suspect, and immoral. Also stupid, apparently.

The dumbest hippy environmentalist I've ever met could think up a dozen better ways to scuttle an airplane than to wreck a perfectly good shitter, and most (not all) of them I've met were pretty far from dumb.

Apparently you've never been to Hidden Splendor, if you think it's "well marked out". And you really think that the pilot who couldn't see the shitters until he struck them on roll-out was able to discern that the runway was clear on the flyover? Look at the topography and guess what the altitude of that flyover was...

Shitters shouldn't have been on the runway. The people who put them there are responsible for the subsequent damage to the airplane. But assuming their motives were nefarious is not logical. It's just knee-jerk Us-and-Them thinking that never did anyone a damn bit of good.

It it makes you feel better to think that way, that's your business. But I don't buy it. I could be proven wrong on this account, and that's fine too. But I refuse to wallow in the sewer of "prove it wasn't intentional" just because THEY are not like ME.

Refreshing Hammer. There's nothing like a good flush. Life is full of situations. Living with them is what makes it interesting.

hotrod180 wrote:

TomD wrote:........I flew into Hidden Splendor a few years with one of the Redtail Aviation pilots with me in order to get familiarized with the area. He mentioned that one needs to look very closely at HS before landing due to "other users" putting things on the runway to deter plane landing in "their" canyon. ...

Hammer wrote:Sounds like an honest mistake if you ask me. .... I don't read anything in the article that makes it sound intentional.

Sounds pretty clear to me--someone with a hurray for me and fuck you attitude sabotaged the runway.
This is the same thing to me as someone stringing wire between trees across a dirt bike trail,
because you don't like their (in your eyes) eco-unfriendly (although legal) use of the area.

I could agree it was an honest mistake if this was an off-airport clearing, but since it was a recognized (and probably well-marked-out) runway-- no way. Everyone's treating it as a big joke since it was a shithouse on the runway, but it might just as well have been an irplane-sized hole with a camo tarp over it.... or a claymore.

+1 on this.

skiermanmike wrote:

akgreg wrote:I'm sorry but trying to understand what the hell your saying gives me a headache.

Omg someone finally said it.

+2 on this.