Patchwork Beaver
Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, lilfssister, North Shore, I WAS Birddog
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binderdundat
- Rank 0
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 5:18 pm
Think about it for just a minute
Please remind me.. how long was the plane sitting at the bottom of the ocean before it was brought to the surface? Is it possible that crashing and being submersed in salt water for so long caused some damage? Arnie was too good of a pilot to step over holes in corroding floats on his way to fuel up, grateful that he had some chewing gum left to fix the hole in the fuel tank, all the while patching the duct tape that held the plane together. Give the guy some credit! He had already completed a two hour flight earlier that same day in that same plane. He was very smart and very cautious; if the plane was having any sort of problems, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere!carholme wrote:The patches are hardly of significance compared to the corrosion that is evident. Surprising that there was any real metal for the patch rivets to contact. Yes many floats have repairs that may not look the best but will in all probability meet the standard, except that many of them I am sure, do not have this level of corrosion.
Regards
carholme
Re: Think about it for just a minute
binderdundat:
You are correct in your praise of Arnie - that fits with all the information we've accumulated.
However, the float corrosion, and illegal and/or unlogged patches would not have been visible over the surface of the water (also note the TCCA comments about corrosion under the paint).
While the aircraft did sit below the surface for five months before being recovered - post-accident corrosion would have been limited at that depth, and temperature - but set in after exposure to oxygen ... This is supported by looking at the entire fuselage immediately post-recovery.
The ops manager knew the floats were in bad condition, he said so when he was arranging to have them overhauled and reskinned almost 18 months before the accident. He also told me - in front of an RCMP officer - that the work had been called off because the owner could not afford it - just like he could not afford a dispatch radio. Nonetheless, this aircraft flew at least another 1000 hours.
You are correct in your praise of Arnie - that fits with all the information we've accumulated.
However, the float corrosion, and illegal and/or unlogged patches would not have been visible over the surface of the water (also note the TCCA comments about corrosion under the paint).
While the aircraft did sit below the surface for five months before being recovered - post-accident corrosion would have been limited at that depth, and temperature - but set in after exposure to oxygen ... This is supported by looking at the entire fuselage immediately post-recovery.
The ops manager knew the floats were in bad condition, he said so when he was arranging to have them overhauled and reskinned almost 18 months before the accident. He also told me - in front of an RCMP officer - that the work had been called off because the owner could not afford it - just like he could not afford a dispatch radio. Nonetheless, this aircraft flew at least another 1000 hours.
Former Advocate for Floatplane Safety
