Ron Awad

[Screw]

Well?

Is Ron, the McDaddy, Awad a full fledge Private pilot SEL?

Per Ron, he was to go this morning for his check ride 8)

If he has obtained his PPL SEL, will he continue on for his "Gyro" rating?

Inquiring Minds want to know!!!

John-

BTW- Did you buy that "Turd?"

[Chuck Irby]

John, it dawned on me that you may not know what a POS is. If you don't, let me know.

[Screw]

What makes you think that? Because I refer to that POS as a "Turd?" (Piece Of Sh*t is part of a Whole Sh*t). That car is a Whole Sh*t, therefore a TURD. I'm not even sure if it's tappered ;D

[Chuck Irby]

Um, um, um..... you bad. Guess I shudda known you knew, huh?

[GyroRon]

Well good news and bad news and not that important news as a bonus.

Bonus news first. Yes I bought the turd. I got the price right, went to the dmv prior to handing over any cash and got a instant clean and clear title and then drove it home. The title will have a colorful history if I ever go to sell it, but who cares about the title history for a good running little car-truck that looks pretty good and is on the road tags and tax and new top and all for under a grand? It will need some work, I plan to play it safe and replace the timing belt since I don't know how many miles are on it already. Several places on the engine leak a little oil so I will need a new distrubutor shaft seal, oil pan, valve cover and possibly a front main seal to clean up the mess under the hood. I also think the water pump is about to go as there is small traces of coolant under the engine near the pump. Everything is super easy to get to and it should be a easy afternoon shade tree mechanic job. I also plan to drain and re fill the trans and rear end and put on new belts. The tires and brakes are fine and It just had a oil change today.

[GyroRon]

Now for the good news.

Yes I am a Jedi master of the skys now. I am a legal Private pilot Single Engine Land and am ready to go for rotorcraft gyro as a add on next. I don't know about doing much more than that yet but maybe one day in a galaxy far far away I might try to become a CFI.....

I passed my checkride and it was a breeze. I had some snags at first because my logs weren't showing some of the Ad's where they were up to date and the Elt had to be tested and put in the logs. I had the mechanic at the airport take a look at the logs to see if he could get them straightened out and low and behold, the mechanic is the same guy who restored this plane back in 1999 and he hadn't seen it since then since it had since got on to several new homes - I am the 3rd owner since 99. He got me all squared away and I got to do my checkride. It couldn't have been much easier and for the most part it was a lot of fun. I was so glad when I got that paper saying I am now a pilot!!!!

I was all set to go home to celebrate and get ready for tomorrow at the airport to give rides to friends and family but......

[Chuck Irby]

Ron,

Since you've already driven it home and you still sound happy about the deal... nothing else matters. You did good. Way to go.

Now what about the check ride, etc.?

[GyroRon]

There is bad news too. Real dam bad. :'( :'( :'(

It happened to be kinda weird but the little Geo truck I had decided to buy was in the same town as the airport I had decided to do my checkride out of. This town is about 100 miles away by car from home and nearly the same by plane to my home base airport. I had drove down the other day while we still had ice on the roads to look at the Geo and decided I would make it easy on me and try to get it today after my checkride. I was going to have my instructor fly down with me for my checkride incase my paperwork was messed up or any other surprises pop up. I had figured one of us could fly my plane back and other drive back. Simple and knocks out two birds with one stone.

So I had really wanted to fly the plane back and have my instructor drive back. He really wasn't thrilled about it especially since the Geo had no top on it and it was only about 50 degrees today. So with much reluctance I let him fly my plane back and I drove off. He is a good pilot with lots of hours and ratings, and I didn't have too bad of a feeling, but I would have felt alot better had I been the one in the plane today.

So then I am about 45 minutes from home when my cell rings. It is a friend out at the airport and he tells me bluntly that the instructor came in with my plane and ground looped it and ended up off the runway in the large pond. My plane is in the pond he says!!! I figure he is BSing me as we do that kind of stuff all the time with each other. But he swears on his life it is true. So I figured he MAY be telling the truth but who knows.... Maybe he and the rest of the gang had just heard from my instructor when he landed that I passed my test and they wanted me to come to the airport to rip off my shirt tail or something and they all knew I had no plans to go out there this afternoon.

So I wait a few minutes and call the airport office and ask if anything is going on and they put me right on the phone with my instructor and he says he is sorry. I say for what and he says for wrecking my plane. I say your Sh*tting me right? he says no and I hang up. Now I am feeling like... Well words just don't describe how I felt then.... So I drive like a bat out of hell to my house to grab a change of clothes and another pair of shoes - I figured if it was crashed into the pond I'd be swimming! I also swapped vehicles because my Chevy is a 4x4 and I have a heavy chain in the toolbox to pull stuck cars of of ditches and thought the truck may be more useful than the Geo. I then haul ass to the airport.

I get to the airport and drive by the pond and don't see my plane but see a few people standing in front of my hangar and the doors to it are still open. I am thinking Yeah they Were screwing with me after all!

But they weren't.

As I pulled up in front of the hangar there was my broken plane sitting there. Water dripped out of everywhere, Both wings totally destroyed the brand new prop bent out like a set of rotorblades in a high G turn, a bend in the airframe and various other nicks dings and trim bent or broke. Not to mention the interior was soaked from about the floor up two or three inches.

The guys had just pulled it out of the pond and got it in my hangar when I pulled up. It ended up in a shallow part of the pond and the engine never got wet and the prop damage was from hitting water not the ground.

I got insurance, but I am not covered for the value of the plane. The plane WAS worth 25-27 grand and I had that much in it. The insurance company would only write a 23 grand policy. I am hoping that I am covered period since I wasn't the one flying.

anyway that is the bad news. Sucks monster balls, because it is like I worked so frigging hard the last 3 months to get my rating and the day I get it my plane is totalled. And from what I hear it may be next fall before it is fixed or replaced, Apparently, I am told, these aircraft insurance companies drap these things out big time.

I am just glad my instructor only hurt his pride and not hisself. I would have been real upset had he gotten hurt.

[Phil_Ruffin]

Ron, that is bad news, sorry to hear it. If your insurance only covers 23 grand is your instructor going to pay the difference to fix your plane?

[GyroRon]

I don't know. I owe him money for all the time he has spent with me. He wanted for me to pay all of it at once after I got my checkride over. I was due to pay him Tomorrow..... I don't owe him much though, maybe 500$ at best. But feel like he earned more than that for all the time he spent with me " off " the clock. It puts me in a pickle. I also got a 500$ deductable to consider too.

I do think I will be covered. I just looked at my policy and It covers Me, Mechanics who have to fly the plane for service reasons, and anyone else as long as they have at least their private rating, 300 hours minimum with at least 25 hours in taildraggers and at least 10 hours in a PA -20 Piper Pacer. He has all of that and then some. I will keep my fingers Crossed anyway.

[ToddP]

Ron my friend, you have been on the emotional roller coaster from hell today! First, congratulations on getting your PPL. Thats great, there are a large number of people who've been hoping you'd get "legal".

I don't know what to say about your plane. It sounds like you'll probably come out of it financially alright. But unfortunately that doesn't solve the fact you have no plane to fly for the next few months. Looks like the challenger might be getting some flight time. Sorry Pal

[Chuck Irby]

Ron,

I was just now able to read about the incident with your fix-wing. Man I am so sorry that happened.

However, it sounds like you are being very positive about it, especially under the circumstances. Therefore, everything will be okay. Who knows, maybe you'll end up with an even better plane than that one, once it's all said and done. At any rate, it could have been a lot worse and I am glad that you are looking at it that way.

I don't have to tell you to keep your chin up because I can tell that you are already doing that.

Yea Ron!!!

[GyroRon]

Yes it was a long day yesterday for me. But today is the day things start to really sink in and I am still okay. I got a real nice gyro to fly just no way to put on cabin heat and it isn't as fast and no where to take my wife for that ride I promissed.

The Challenger has a busted engine right now. I have it at the local rotax guys place to be repaired, But who knows how long before it is done. It is faster and more protected from wind blasting me, but it is still not the same..... :-

I am thinking the insurance will pay to get the plane fixed. I just wish there was somekind of rental plane provision where they will pay for a few hours a month of rental plane time so I can still fly while they fix the plane.

[Chuck Irby]

Ron, have you read the fine print in the policy?

[GyroRon]

not all of it

[Screw]

D*mn Ron,

I am so sorry :'( sucking Monster balls doesn't begin to cover that kind of a day. Congratulations on your rating, and your "Turd." You went into it with your eyes open, got a deal you were comfortable with, and I think you'll be happy with it.

As far the plane goes, I'm sure your instructor is feeling very bad about it and will do all he can to make it right. You didn't ask, but IMHO, if you owe the guy some scratch, offer it to him, he'll probably refuse and try and figure a way to make it right.

If there is anything I can do for you, let me know.

Your friend,

John-

[Chuck Irby]

Ron,
Since all insurance companies are different, and all their employees are also, you'll never know what their reaction will be. You may be pleasantly surprised, but probably not. Just remember that they, in all probability, will try to settle for as little as possible. Therefore, you must try to get as much as possible.

It may become necessary to get a lawyer involved in order to get reimbursed for the actual value. Just don't settle too quickly and for too little. And don't believe everything the insurance people tell you. It seems that most of them are trained thieves. In case you do need to get a lawyer involved, let me know first as, I know you are aware, they are typically a bad bunch too. But I have quite a bit of experience with them, so I may can be of some help.

[Phil_Ruffin]

Ron, I believe that everything happens for a reason. Even the bad may have been for a better outcome in the long run.

Who knows, maybe by the other guy being in the PIC saved your life. Not that I think your not an excellent pilot, he just may have done something that you might not have to keep from dying. Or maybe you were going flying today with your wife and would have had an engine failure or something that may have caused a devastating outcome.

You never know, I'm glad that everyone is OK.

[Chuck Irby]

Phil,

That's a good point. I totally agree.

[CLS447]

Ron,

I hate to say it, but this is why you never let anyone drive your vette, ride your harley, or definitely never fly your aircraft. I loaned my brother my Subaru wagon and it came back with a grinding noise. What am I supposed to do, make him pay for it?

At ROC, I very reluctantly borrowed Jamie B.'s truck to go to the store. He made me use it. I just wanted a ride. Nothing happened but, you know Murphy's Law. I am very sorry to hear about your plane.

[GyroRon]

Thanks guys for the suport. Here is a few pics of the damage

[GyroRon]

left wing hit the tree

[GyroRon]

Bent up door

[GyroRon]

Bent up prop

[GyroRon]

Front of left wing

[GyroRon]

View of the top of the wing

[GyroRon]

Right side of wing and also in one of the other pics you can see the Turd mobile behind the hangar door.

[Chuck Irby]

Looks like he pretty well did a number on it Ron. However, I thought it would have been a lot worse.

Do you know exactly what happened yet?

[GyroRon]

Yes I know what happened. My plane got damaged bad and I can't celebrate being a legal pilot with a 4 place airplane and give my friends and family a ride. I am very upset. The damage looks alot worse in person. Right wing is garbage. Left wing is re buildable. The prop and door is rebuildable. The Engine may have a bent crank though. Keep in mind this plane was pristine and had not even a slight scratch on it, not even a bug or two on the windshield. Will see what the insurance says Monday.

[Chuck Irby]

Ron, go back and read Phil Ruffin's last post on this. Then take it to heart. Phil was right in what he said. (He posted it at 09:31:32 today)

[GyroRon]

Yes there is a possibilty that he is right. I just want to talk to the insurance company. They won't be in the office till monday.

[PW_Plack]

Ron,

Congrats, and also condolences. I know your instructor must feel really bad. It's bad enough to wreck a plane, but it could be really bad for CFI to have one of those on his record.

I've only flown 160 hours, but I've already had to bring in two taildraggers with engine problems. I was confident in both cases that I could get down without serious injury, but I had a sick feeling in my stomach thinking about banging up somebody else's plane. No fun!

Did you know that Chuck Yeager actually ground-looped a taildragger a few weeks ago, north of Atlanta? I guess anyone can do it...

[GyroRon]

Yeap anyone can do it. The adjustor comes to see my plane on Wednesday. Hope they can fix it fast.

[PW_Plack]

They're sending an adjuster?

They need to send a rebuilder! That things way beyond adjusting!

[GyroRon]

Funny. They could just bring out a guy with two new wings and paint booth and a new prop and door and really get the ball rolling....

[Screw]

I hope things work out for you Ron,

Do you know if your insurance co. Will cover the you even though you weren't the PIC?

John-

[GyroRon]

I dug this thread out from the older posts...

This past weekend I added up my log book hours and now have a little over 500 hours. This thread was started the day I got my rating and started logging time.

I probably have another 1000 hours of unlogged time, from flying ultralights and other aircrafts before I got my rating.

In this thread, there was mention of a " Turd " in a few posts. This was in reference to a little Geo Tracker Jeep I bought cheap to use as a vehicle to run errands in. John Stevens called it a turd and the nickname stuck....

also I never posted the outcome of the crash in that thread.... The insurance company did accept the claim, and asked me to find estimates for repair. I had two local people estimate repairs and one guy who came here from Tennessee who gave a estimate. The two local guys prices were so high, the plane would have been totalled. The Tenn guys estimate was low enough to fix the plane, so I had him take it home to his place to fix.

I think it was June or July when I finally got it back from the shop. One wing was repaired, the other replaced, new door skin, prop repaired and we had the engine major overhauled. It was a bummer waiting around for my plane to get fixed....

I ended up flying it for a few months after I got it back and then sold it that winter and bought a Vans RV-4.

[gyro]

Dadgum....how does a high time instructor ground loop a plane. Are you sure this is the guy you want to get your certification under?? I know we all screw up every now and then but that is scary!

Heck I learned to fly a short coupled team minimax (taildragger)without any instruction...sure It took me about two weeks of taixing it around before I felt confident that I could T/O & L but an instuctor with several hours should have never let the plane get ahead of him.

Not running this guy down but... Ron, what the flip happended???

[GyroRon]

And btw, the instructor refused to accept any money from me that I owed him for his instruction. That was all the " Help " I got out of him for messing up my plane. Of course he was doing me a favor coming down to my checkride and flying my plane back, so I couldn't fault him too hard. I still see him nearly every weekend and were still friends.

I had to pay the deductable and then another few thousand dollars due to me deciding to do a full overhaul on the engine while it was apart for inspection. I ended up with a little over 30 grand invested in the plane when it was all said and done and when I sold it I got about all that I had into the plane. So that wasn't too bad.

Gyro, how does a high time instructor ground loop a plane? Well it was very windy and gusty that day and shortwing piper taildraggers are not airplanes that I would call easy to land, you can get behind the plane pretty quick. The instructor had only 2 or 3 takeoffs and landing in this type total, and just wasn't apparently good enough to deal with a strong gusting tailwind on a narrow runway with it.... You know, some people have it in their minds that a instructor pilot equals a super skilled or great pilot. This is not always the case, sometimes the rating just means the pilot has put in the time and flown the hours and gotten the ratings, it does not mean they are exactly a great or super skilled stick and rudder type of pilot.

I still remember talking to him just before he got into the plane to fly back.... The wind was at the planes tail and was so strong it was slamming the flaps down to the stops - on these planes the flaps are help up on the ground with only a spring, in flight the air holds them up till you pull the lever to put them down - I asked his if he thought he would be okay flying the plane back and he laughed and said " You got insurance guy...." ???????????? I was like " Yeah, but the plane is under insured, so we don't need no accidents! " It was pretty bad.... my gut had told me before he even got into it that he might have a problem, but I let him fly it anyway thinking he would be okay.

[gyro]

Hmmm, that's to bad....high winds can sure jump up and bit you. I wont even fly my gyro if there are high winds, especially if it is gusty. I use to brave winds up to 40mph just to do hover T/O&L but not anymore. read and heard about to many accidents involving high winds.

Well Ron, chin up, perhaps what was said earlier about preventing you from some other misforture is the key factor.

do you still have your 2-plc midwing?

[GyroRon]

Gyro, you did read the dates on the above posts? This thread was started about 3 years ago.... A long time ago in my life!

Still have the 2 seat mid winger....

[gyro]

Lol...no I did'nt! I was wondring how on earth it accumulated 3 pages so fast.

My bad....ok so who drug this out of the woodwork and got me thinkin this just happend??....Ok it was U I just backed it up and found out.

these threads need to change color on somthing after they are a month or two old. sheesssh

[Joe Pires]

Really sorry to hear about your plane. Hope it works out.


well crap i posted before i finished reading too and it wont let me delete...

[KenSandyEggo]

Joe, when you hit the "Edit" button of your post, there are four buttons at the bottom. You have to hit one to repost after you edit, but there is also one marked "Delete." In fact, I should have used that button a lot more in the past.

[PW_Plack]

Gyro, veteran test pilot Chuck Yeager ground-looped a taildragger at an airport in Georgia a couple years ago. I guess that means it could happen to anybody!

[Aussie_Paul]

Tail draggers must be a bit like retractables. There are those that have and those that have yet to land wheels up.

Aussie Paul. :)

[Roundwing]

Dadgum....how does a high time instructor ground loop a plane. Are you sure this is the guy you want to get your certification under?? I know we all screw up every now and then but that is scary!

Heck I learned to fly a short coupled team minimax (taildragger)without any instruction...sure It took me about two weeks of taixing it around before I felt confident that I could T/O & L but an instuctor with several hours should have never let the plane get ahead of him.

Not running this guy down but... Ron, what the flip happended???

Gyro,
There is a little saying about flying tail draggers that goes:
"There are those that have ground looped and those that are going to ground loop."
The more you fly them the better your chances of it happening.

Rick

[Rotornut]

Rick, Might find that funny if I did not Remember Ken Brock. mj

[Chuck_Ellsworth]

" There is a little saying about flying tail draggers that goes:

There are those that have ground looped and those that are going to ground loop."
The more you fly them the better your chances of it happening. "

Interesting saying, I wonder when I'm going to ground loop one, been flying tail draggers now for 54 years and have around 15,000 hours on so many different types of tail wheel aircraft including tail wheel helicopters that I can't remember them all and still have never ground looped one.

The question I guess is will I die of old age before I ground loop, will I lose my medical and never ground loop one?

The saying sounds real macho but is pure nonesense. :rant:

[Rotornut]

Chuck, Please do not say that!! Geeez I would Miss You Much. mj

[Chuck_Ellsworth]

Don't worry MJ I plan on living for a long time.

In fact I was talking to my Aviation doctor just a few weeks ago about this very thing, he asked me how the aerobatics thing was going and I told him I had quit. He was suprised and asked me why? When I explained that it was all the B.S surrounding the Air Show scene and the boredom of sitting all day on some God forsaken airport ramp just to fly a 12 minute routine over and over he understood.....oh and I don't have to take the extra medical exam any more...its a win win.

Still thinking about finding my way down to the gyro meet this spring.

[Rotornut]

Chuck, It would be My Honor to MEET you. You and Paul B have my Heart.

Come on down and and lets Chit Chat in Person. I would Love It. mj

[Mike Schallmann]

I dont have near the hours in a TD as some of you --Ive never ground looped --yet--I came damn close one time --I did the two step on the rudder pedals and (luckily ) applied power in the right amount at the right time-- I went up later that day and shot several full stop landings to restore my confidence!! That incident occurred about 12 yrs ago !!

[Roundwing]

Rotornut, I am not familiar with Ken Brock.

Chuck, I am very impressed with your record. However you cannot deny the fact that anyone who flies a taildragger has at least some potential of ground looping. No matter the what their experience level.
With each flight more experienced is gained and the chances go down but it is still there.