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Oops, darn it...

It had sat for a long time. Anything is possible. Could even be a hand prop gone wrong with old rotten ropes. Or the brakes were defective. I’ll probably find out more today or tomorrow.
 
Too bad about the Swift, but the collateral damage is even more of a bummer.
Probably no insurance on a ramp queen, I hope the responsible party will pony up the dough to make things right.
Unfortunately, probably not much chance of that either.
 
Give it time. You will. I did a demo flight in a Scout right out of the factory. First stall…nothing aggressive, thing got right on its back. Flew really nice after it was properly rigged. Unfamiliar planes, I’m ALWAYS on high alert, and EVERY one gets stalled early.

MTV
I am with you completely Mike. And many times it’s a bad repair causing different AOI between the 2 sides then corrected and masked by washout which will make it fly hands off BUT look out in a full stall.
Dave
 
I have not had a Cub drop a wing in a power on stall. This surprises me because a series on power on , power off, flaps, no flaps is one of the first things I do in any Cub I fly.

Steve--When I began to fly the county fire plane about ten years ago I had not had but about five hours in a an 18 and this aircraft did not have VG's. I asked a knowledge pilot that did upset/ unusual attitude training to give me a thorough checkout as I am leery of flying aircraft that I am not familiar with. We went up to 3500 AGL + and I asked, "Where the hell are we going". He replied--I am going to have you do an aggravated departure stall. So at full power it was raise the nose, raise the nose, raise the nose. In an instant the nose broke, left wing dropped, and we entered a spin. Only did one 360. I got the message.

At most fire incidents I was generally at approx 500+/- at reduced speed, doing 360's and often at steep bank angle. I was always paying attention
to feel, sound, AS--I understood that first mistake would be last mistake.

TC
 
4 seat cub went down in Kodiak today. Pilot did not survive. Crashed shortly after takeoff from municipal
 
This happened today at my airport. Globe Swift that hadn’t moved in years was being run up in its tie down.

Also got a 172 and a Mooney.

So the rest of the story is 180 HP Swift being run in the tie down. Owner decided to get out while it was tied down and running at low power. He managed somehow to kick the throttle to full power with one foot in the cockpit and one foot out. He went along for the wild ride. A contributing factor was how the tiedown rings were attached to the wing SKIN!
 

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One thing to do if exiting the cockpit with the engine running - lean the engine out at idle until it almost quits. It won't make much power if the throttle slips open in my experience. Better to shut it off and start over. But sometimes it's winter cold and the battery is iffy or hand propping required so we take chances.

Gary
 
So the rest of the story is 180 HP Swift being run in the tie down. Owner decided to get out while it was tied down and running at low power. He managed somehow to kick the throttle to full power with one foot in the cockpit and one foot out. He went along for the wild ride. A contributing factor was how the tiedown rings were attached to the wing SKIN!

Maybe I'm profiling but I'm curious as to the person's age.
 
Maybe I'm profiling but I'm curious as to the person's age.

Not sure. I think he, like me, was allowed to be first in line for the Covid vaccine when it came out. :)

I talked to an eye witness today who said it really wasn’t full power, but it was enough to tear those cheesy tie down rings off the airplane. What a shame, the whole thing could have been a non event if they were installed properly.

Rich
 
I’ve seen young Trumpeters in that country almost this late, in rivers that still had open water. I suspect those birds don’t make it.. Only other bird I can imagine solid enough to do that kind of damage, other than waterfowl, is maybe a golden eagle.

Many years ago two friends were killed in a float equipped 206 with similar damage to wing. There’d been two Trumpeters in that vicinity (on Kodiak) wintering there. After the accident I only saw one of the birds.

.
MTV
 
Was trying to figure out where the discussion of a swan came from...then realized people were referring to the image of the wing damage. That image is from the 2018 event, which was a cruise flight bird strike with an eagle. I don't see any information regarding the what led to the airplane flipping over last week, as Gary said.

One thing about that bird strike...those wings are entirely riveted instead of using the little PK screws. Unbelievably stout wing. It was still straight, just had spar cap and spar rib damage. But very time consuming to repair.
 
Thanks for clearing that up. I haven't seen a swan for a month at least. It's -11* this morning so no surprise. I have had a very close call with a Bald Eagle. That thing looked friggin huge. That damage doesn't surprise me. Makes me wonder how a Cessna wing would take the same hit at 150mph?
 
Those big birds are hard to spot especially if they don't move much relative to the plane's path. They just get suddenly bigger when approached. A rocky background makes them blend in with the terrain. Ravens tend to roll and dive like waterfowl....predator avoidance I guess. I saw one yesterday cross underneath an Alaska Airlines EM175 on final. It hit the wake turbulence and got rocked around pretty good until it escaped the ILS. A learning lesson for that bird... wings don't fail me now!

Gary
 
"The pilot reported that, during straight-and-level flight, a large bird struck the airplane's right wing."

That in itself represents an aberration in the space time continuum. I'll bet 10:1 that the airplane struck the bird. Large birds can do a huge amount of damage to an aircraft. A bird the size of a red tailed hawk, common where I fly, would easily crush a Cub leading edge back to the front spar. I have had several near misses with Red Tails in the FX-3 and the PA-28. It's much more enjoyable to share the sky with them in a sailplane. Opposite side of the thermal, eye ball to eye ball, working the core together. It's magic and something few power pilots will ever experience.
 
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