Preflighten' the bird tonight and while running my hand down the leading edge of the left wing i felt something odd--looked up and almost dead center leading edge was a big dent in my wing--mainly on the underside of leading edge--white scuff marks around it and narrow sawtoothed edge ripple in fabric on the outside of large dimple on the underside (like some serious friction started here)....--called a buddy who stopped by--called airport police--while i was still cussin' (but relieved it still wouldn't affect my two week hunt trip to brooks/kotz) he said look for other damage and that's when my eyes went to my jury strut--the front vertical of strut was dimpled and bent---fabric up in the wing at the attachment point was ripped about 3" long i.e. attachment point of jury now pushed back--leading vertical edge of jury strut had black paint that looked like a sharpie line down it (3-4" in length)....the jury strut now sits about 1.5" aft of where it should sit at the leading edge of fabric cut--upon further review which is weird, the front of my prop near center of blade has a divot in it--looks like someone took some sort of grinder/buffing type wheel (about pencil eraser wide, half inch long) and started to grind on prop then slipped and there are these odd spiral patterns leading away from divot on the top coat--with a color red surrounding the divot?? also on the right wing just outboard of tie down there is a red rub mark at about a 45 degree angle of flight and also some red surrounding that with some spots of red on the tie down ring..... oh, on the inner leading edge of other prop blade similar scuff marks like a buff wheel with hints of red??? also now have a decent wrinkle in fabric (silver dollar size) near trailing edge of left wing between jury strut and wing strut that i have never seen before--wings totally rebuilt in 2004 by previous owner--dakota-round tips---hoping no twisting etc happened....
WTF!!!! am pretty shocked, i measured my truck with canopy on it tonight--around 80"--bottom of leading edge--roughly 80"???? it appeared left jury strut took a blow at about a 45 degree angle to flight towards cabin---odd thing is the wing strut appears totally untouched....well past (~6") the damage to leading edge there is a prominent rub/scruff mark that is black--so something had to get pretty deep and below the wing but not touch the strut?????
My last flight was with Jerry Kallum, pull test, tach test, swapped birds so i could get his opinion of new engine (50hrs)--flew to palmer then sand bar on knik glacier then home to lake hood--haven't flown it since--been to the bird a few times since but really only on the right side....no big wind events etc....i made mention about it looked as if somebody had joy ridden my bird....gonna call tower tmrw and see if they have any records of my plane taking off or landing prior to my last flight---totally random/strange--other planes around me appear to be OK.....thought maybe moose due to the red but the prop and other wing appear to have minimal damage per what a set of antlers could do and the left wing has white and black rub marks that don't indicate moose...
glad my hands were where they were on preflight, i didn't even notice the jury strut damage until several minutes after seeing leading edge damage--a bit of tunnel vision....glad as usual i did a full preflight..... it's insured....
umm, doubtful (to include the cop's opinion) that Hood has any camera's pointed towards Echo parking---at this point i sure would feel safer if they had installed them instead of that DAMN fence on the south side and the new pilot activated gate near the taxiway---oh, also wish they would come and fix my tailwheel tiedown that i told them about ~2 months ago....
peeeece
WTF!!!! am pretty shocked, i measured my truck with canopy on it tonight--around 80"--bottom of leading edge--roughly 80"???? it appeared left jury strut took a blow at about a 45 degree angle to flight towards cabin---odd thing is the wing strut appears totally untouched....well past (~6") the damage to leading edge there is a prominent rub/scruff mark that is black--so something had to get pretty deep and below the wing but not touch the strut?????
My last flight was with Jerry Kallum, pull test, tach test, swapped birds so i could get his opinion of new engine (50hrs)--flew to palmer then sand bar on knik glacier then home to lake hood--haven't flown it since--been to the bird a few times since but really only on the right side....no big wind events etc....i made mention about it looked as if somebody had joy ridden my bird....gonna call tower tmrw and see if they have any records of my plane taking off or landing prior to my last flight---totally random/strange--other planes around me appear to be OK.....thought maybe moose due to the red but the prop and other wing appear to have minimal damage per what a set of antlers could do and the left wing has white and black rub marks that don't indicate moose...
glad my hands were where they were on preflight, i didn't even notice the jury strut damage until several minutes after seeing leading edge damage--a bit of tunnel vision....glad as usual i did a full preflight..... it's insured....
umm, doubtful (to include the cop's opinion) that Hood has any camera's pointed towards Echo parking---at this point i sure would feel safer if they had installed them instead of that DAMN fence on the south side and the new pilot activated gate near the taxiway---oh, also wish they would come and fix my tailwheel tiedown that i told them about ~2 months ago....
peeeece
