Ron Awad

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

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

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

left wing hit the tree

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

Bent up door

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

Bent up prop

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

Front of left wing

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

View of the top of the wing

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

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

 

[Chuck Irby]

Re:Ron Awad

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]

Re:Ron Awad

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]

Re:Ron Awad

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]

Re:Ron Awad

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]

Re:Ron Awad

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]

Re:Ron Awad

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

 

[PW_Plack]

Re:Ron Awad

They're sending an adjuster?

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

 

[GyroRon]

Re:Ron Awad

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]

Re:Ron Awad

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?