Brian - Steve's Aircraft wrote:Another was for flying his 108 home from Alaska with 6 foot of his wingtip ripped off, long story that will have to be told at another time.

Brian.

Come on you are killing us

I read a story of an old bushpilot who hit something on landing and knocked off part of one wing. I think he was flying an anson so instead of spending the winter he cut the other one off the same with a chainsaw and flew home

Back when men were men

That field repair on the second BRLP video was pretty impressive. They had the tip held on with rope and duct tape.

Ill write up the story when I have the time and post it here in the next couple of days....Need to contact the guy and get a few more facts straight.

Brian.

Brian,

Hey, nobody else on here bothers to get facts straight....you trying to be an overachiever here, and make us all look bad?

MTV

We don't need no steenking fax....

Im at work, so you all are going to have to wait until after 5 PM pacific time anyhow.....

If I cant get a hold of him, Ill just "shoot from the hip" and try to recall the story from my young head. It happened 20 some years ago, so I know I am a little scetchy on the details.

Brian.

Brian - Steve's Aircraft wrote:so I know I am a little scetchy on the details.

Probably a good thing too the way things are lately with Feds.

Gump

Gump has a good point I think, and it raises a question.

As a self proclaimed FNG (F***ing new guy) to this forum...... what's the story with the Feds monitoring this forum and some guy getting busted?

Tick wrote:Gump has a good point I think, and it raises a question.

As a self proclaimed FNG (F***ing new guy) to this forum...... what's the story with the Feds monitoring this forum and some guy getting busted?

You'll have to do some searching and find the threads yourself. keyword: aktahoe

Bottom line: Don't share it with us if you're not willing to share it with the world.

I was at the bar the other night and this guy, who I have never met before, told me .......

Searched. Read. Copy all.

Just in case Big Brother is watching..... I was being serious about all my guns falling out of the canoe. Twas a real shame.

Carefull Tick........they'll want to know where this happened.

bcpstudent - I run into that guy all the time too. Man he really gets around.

OK guys, here goes.

Like I said earlier, this happened about 20 years ago. And the guy that did it had his license suspended for doing so. Still, it is a great story.

Also I am leaving names out, lets just call him Joe.

So, Joe picked up a Stinson 108-3 project. Being the pirate that he is, he put it together with a huge baggage area, 540 Lycoming with fixed pitch prop and big tires. I remember Gar Aero adaptors, but I could be wrong. Anyway, Joe put this thing together and flew it. No paperwork, nothing legal. He decides that this would be a great airplane to take up to Alaska and do a little bush work. Several of his friends also wanted to go and do a little hunting and fishing. So Joe thinks this is a good way to save a little on gas money by providing the airplane for their outings. So, everything is going good until the day he was going to head home.

He was ferrying stuff out at a short section of river bar when the left brake broke. In fact, Stinson axels are bolted into a tube, his bolt broke. Or it just wasn't there to begin with, can't remember. Of course the axle spun in the tube and voila, no more brake after the caliper riped out the brake line. Only thing to do his lock up the right side and get the airplane stopped before the river. The aftermath was a mangled left wing in the river and the main gear in about 1 foot of water. Luckily he did not hit the prop or bend the fuselage. But, his left wing was toast up to the first aileron hinge point. Seemed like 6 feet, but probably somewhere between 4 to 5 foot. (so I finged a little, it was a long time ago)

So what to do, cut whats left of the wing off with a meat saw and fly to town thats what.... Took all of his rudder to keep her straight, but he got it back to civilization 60 miles away. Next day, there is a big red tag in the window with the FAA wants to talk to you stamped all over it. Not to mention the fish and wildlife guys say you are using this airplane for hire and you do not have a part 135 operation, so they are going to confiscate your airplane. Joe is in big do do and he knows it....This is what he does.

Joe is not about to let his airplane be taken by the feds, he is also needing to get home. So, a trip to the hardware store got him some heavy wall 6 inch plastic pipe, some galvanized rolled sheets, sections of stove pipe, duct tape and a whole bunch of pop rivets and a pop rivet gun. Burning the midnight oil and a donated garage, Joe builds himself a wing section out of his "parts". A little cleanup with the saw on the airplane at about 4 in the morning, he slides about 4 feet of the pipes along side of the spars of the wings and with a combo of Pop rivets, rope and duct tape there is a complete wing. Well sort of anyway. Time to head home.....

Well first flight was past McKinnley and his makeshift wingtip decided that it did not want to stay nice and straight. In fact, it thought that bending up at about a 45 degree angle would be a better place. So, a quick landing and a long pice of rope tied around each pipe at the wing tip to the fuselage step kept the tip from going any further. Joe stops for gas, and of course he gets greeted immediately. They try to block him with cars and trucks, but he just goes around and keeps going. He flies over the bay from Alaska to Washington in order to stay away from Canada, because there was no way Canada customs was going to let him into the country anyway. Lucky he had a big ferry tank in the back that allowed him to do that kind of long leg.

Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter. Joe made it home. The airplane disappeared and I have no idea what happened to it. The feds caught up to him and he got his lincense suspended and he was able to beat the charges brought up by the fish and wildlife. Probably would have had a lot more done to him, but at that time he got away with it with basically a slap on the wrist. This day and age would have got him a few years im sure.

Brian.

There were a few "Joes" up there then... Fun to watch and sure do miss a lot of them. Funny thing is, most did not die from airplane crashes. Cancer from smoking is the main culprit, or too much booze.

Gump

The dude has balls! Thanks for the story. Another one for the old and bold.

Burp, if you're lurking.....I'm sure one of your Canadian P-51 stories would be welcome in this topic.

Tick, I'm not sure combat exploits are within the scope of this here little 'ol forum.

Could somebody let me know if I'd be out of bounds posting about a couple well known "there I was" episodes from some of my WW2 research?

Well, "here I am" waiting for "there I was"?????