Tuesday, January 17, 2006
A Cub, A Truck, A Packing Crate..................
My e-mail buddy and fellow aviation enthusiast Clive Pearce sent me a story and some photos of an incident that happened recently. It is quite amazing, and plainly shows how in aviation, one must be completely aware and focused at all times, even when doing the least "brain-intensive" activity, such as securing the airplane with "tie-down" ropes. Anyhow, let's hear the story from Clive............
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To: "Steven Taylor"
Subject: A Cub, A Truck, A Packing Crate..................
The story: The owner of the Cub was experiencing engine problems and landed in Whitehorse. He spent the next morning with the engineers trying to sort things out, but, not being able to do so by lunch time, they went for something to eat. Now, being an experienced pilot, (over 20,000 hrs), he tied the wings to the embedded tie downs, but then, for some unknown reason, tied the tail to one of the fuel trucks.
The fueler, a short time later, went to answer a call and started to drive off when he heard what sounded like a really loud "rrrriiip" where upon he stopped and discovered the destroyed Cub with the fuselage essentially torn from the "secured" wings. Apparently the owner got very excited about the whole incident (naturally!!), but he started to calm down a bit when the RCMP asked if it was normal to tie a plane to a truck.
He still doesn't know why he did it. Last I heard it was crated and about to be shipped back down to California.
Hence the phrase: "What were you thinking about"?
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"OuuccCCHHHHH!" Reminds me of hunting as a lad, shooting grouse, and to clean them we would step on their wings, pull on their legs, and the feathers, skin, and internal organs would separate from the breast. Anyways, thank you very much for the input Clive, always welcome. In closing let me just make one final observation. I believe on the day of this incident, unfortunately, this pilot's "Faculty" was short a few "Professors".....................
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To: "Steven Taylor"
Subject: A Cub, A Truck, A Packing Crate..................
The story: The owner of the Cub was experiencing engine problems and landed in Whitehorse. He spent the next morning with the engineers trying to sort things out, but, not being able to do so by lunch time, they went for something to eat. Now, being an experienced pilot, (over 20,000 hrs), he tied the wings to the embedded tie downs, but then, for some unknown reason, tied the tail to one of the fuel trucks.
The fueler, a short time later, went to answer a call and started to drive off when he heard what sounded like a really loud "rrrriiip" where upon he stopped and discovered the destroyed Cub with the fuselage essentially torn from the "secured" wings. Apparently the owner got very excited about the whole incident (naturally!!), but he started to calm down a bit when the RCMP asked if it was normal to tie a plane to a truck.
He still doesn't know why he did it. Last I heard it was crated and about to be shipped back down to California.
Hence the phrase: "What were you thinking about"?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"OuuccCCHHHHH!" Reminds me of hunting as a lad, shooting grouse, and to clean them we would step on their wings, pull on their legs, and the feathers, skin, and internal organs would separate from the breast. Anyways, thank you very much for the input Clive, always welcome. In closing let me just make one final observation. I believe on the day of this incident, unfortunately, this pilot's "Faculty" was short a few "Professors".....................
