An interesting aviation incident..with some lessons...

[Guest Maj Millard]

I was discussing this incident recently with a friend, so no reason not to share it with you all.

 

Some years back I was working with an Aviation maintenance organization here in NQld. We had to go out to a Western cattle station to remove the engine, propeller and left wing from a Cessna 182.

 

On arrival we found the aircraft with large hole completely through the center of the left wing (and bladder fuel tank !), a very badly destroyed prop, but otherwise undamaged to the normal eye.

 

The pilot/owner/ cattleman had a severly mentally handicapped teenage son, who flew with him in the 182 on normal station duties.

 

He had landed the 182 for lunch on a reasonably short but adequet strip right in front of the homestead, instead of the normal longer strip a couple of kilometers away.

 

He told us he had done two things that day that he had never done before, or made a habit of doing. He had turned the fuel off, and had left the keys in the start switch. He then proceeded into the homestead to prepare lunch for he and his son.

 

After Dad had disappeared, the son hopped into the pilots seat, pushed all the controls to the dash just as dad did, and hit the starter key !...........

 

The hot engine immediatly roared to full power, and the aircraft took off across a grass paddock that it had been parked facing.

 

Now one of two things were going to happen,....either the aircraft was going to get airborne with a crash shortly afterwards, or, it was going to impact a large cattle yard about 300 mts ahead.

 

Before either of those happened however, the propeller impacted a large block of concrete laying hidden in the tall grass !...The engine then stopped due to having exhausted the fuel available to it (turned off). Both propellor tips became ballistic missiles when they hit the concrete, with one going clean through the left wing, while the other went through the LH cowl-flap, then the stainless fire-wall, and ended up lodged under the rudder pedals at the lads feet !. Shows just what power a prop spinning at full RPM has !!..

 

The kid then walked away from the aircraft, like nothing had happened !!.

 

As it turned out the engine was almost at TBO, so no drama there. Obviously it needed a serious bulk-strip and check after the full-power prop-stike anyway. The wing was repaired after a new fuel cell was fitted, and then refitted to the aircraft. With the cowl-flap and firewall repaired, and with a new engine and prop fitted, I witnessed the aircraft take off from the short homestead strip a few weeks later, with the owner and my boss aboard.

 

Moral of this true story ?...don't leave your keys unattended in your aircraft !......................Maj...

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

and thats just with a handicapped kid, imagine what a Terr*rist could have done......had there been any skulking around...... Thank God he had his ASIC firmly around his neck

 

 

[Bandit12]

Great story and a happy ending (relatively).

 

Not as severe consequences, but a long time ago I was managing residential services for young adults with intellectual disabilities. My hobby at the time was restoring crashed motorcycles, and I often brought some tools and a bike to work on (live in, 10 on 4 off). The guys absolutely loved to help, so we spent many a weekend working on bikes, followed by a BBQ. One day I walked in to see that one had decided to start working on my regular bike (Kwaka GPZ1000RX) which wasn't in need of restoring. But the young guy decided to work on it anyway, and was busily dropping tools down into the mufflers

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Crikey Ross, a lucky escape for the young bloke!

 

Amazing where the prop tips went; the firewall and wing are a long way from being in line with a spinning prop.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Very lucky Okor, what remained of one tip (the one lodged under rudder pedals) was sitting on my bosses desk for years. Just a jagged ball of alum. Lucky escape also for the father, had the lad been killed he would have just walked over to the shed and shot himself I reckon. A very potentially bad situation that turned out ok in the end, as far as I know the plane is still flying somewhere...........................................Maj....

 

 

[kiwicrusader]

I spent a fair portion of my early childhood in the front seat of dads Tiger Moth. When I was about 7 we upgraded to an Auster. I remember sitting at the controls while Dad hand swung it. Ignition on when he said. Adjust the throttle as required, and most importantly if anything went wrong pull the mixture. Looking back Now with a seven year old myself and after hearing this story and others similar, I can't imagine what the old man was thinking........

 

 

[Bandit12]

Different generation Kiwi....I was driving a Leyland tractor at age 10 - the brakes didn't work. Now that same tractor has working brakes, and my 14 year old son doesn't get to drive it yet.....

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

When i was a kid the whole neighbourhood where building go karts and mini bikes, we where all under the ages of 10.

 

And at my grandparents farm all the kids drove the tractors and utes.

 

 

[kiwicrusader]

I don't think these things did us any harm. Nowadays if you let your kids do half the things we used to do, someone would dob you into child services....

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

When i was a kid the whole neighbourhood where building go karts and mini bikes, we where all under the ages of 10.And at my grandparents farm all the kids drove the tractors and utes.

Billy carts, tractors, galloping bareback thru the scrub, firearms... kids were plentiful and parents too busy to be overprotective.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I'm pretty sure that those doing the dobbing are the ones that never did any of the neat things we did when we where young.

 

i had a few cousins that where always kept behind the fence or inside and they have grown up to be pretty useless and are always interferring with things that do not concern them.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

i had a few cousins that where always kept behind the fence or inside and they have grown up to be pretty useless and are always interferring with things that do not concern them.

Tell me one of them didn't go on the be PM then? ->

 

 

(Sorry, late Saturday night and all...)

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

That's a scary thought . the girls are all redheads.

 

 

[spacesailor]

I taught most of my grand-kids to drive!, On a rideon mower, its still runs but without the blades at my youngest daughters.

 

Bryan

 

 

[eightyknots]

Both propellor tips became ballistic missiles when they hit the concrete, with one going clean through the left wing, while the other went through the LH cowl-flap, then the stainless fire-wall, and ended up lodged under the rudder pedals at the lads feet !. Shows just what power a prop spinning at full RPM has !!..

No doubt about it, after reading that story, Maj, I have an even healthier respect for rotating propellers . Thanks for sharing it.

 

I'm pretty sure that those doing the dobbing are the ones that never did any of the neat things we did when we where young.i had a few cousins that where always kept behind the fence or inside and they have grown up to be pretty useless and are always interferring with things that do not concern them.

It is interesting to observe those adults who had fun as children -even if this involved some risks- and those who were for ever sheltered from the scary and bad things in the world.

 

I am pretty sure that there is a strong correlation between those who led sheltered upbringings and those who are really active in various protest movements as adults, highlighting the things to be feared in this life and into the future.

 

 

[DAVID SEE]

When i was a kid the whole neighbourhood where building go karts and mini bikes, we where all under the ages of 10.And at my grandparents farm all the kids drove the tractors and utes.

You're right about that Ozzie, as kids growing up on the farm we all drove the tractors from about age 8 upwards. My Dad had a grey petrol TEA20 which he bought new in 1949 and my brother now owns it but it lives here at Frogs Hollow just north of Theodore and spends its working hours slashing the strip.

 

Also if us kids were going off down the back of the farm, either Mum or Dad would sing out to us to go back and get a rifle to take with us as there were fox's, dogs and snakes. we would often bring home a hare or a black duck for dinner.

 

Cheers Davo.