A story for his grandkids.

“MCCALL, Idaho (AP) — A pilot who was trying to crash-land this week in an Idaho field instead brought his small plane to rest at the top of a 60-foot (18-meter) tree, officials said.

Pilot John Gregory was not hurt in the Monday night crash, which happened when his single-engine Piper Cub PA-18 lost power and a wing strut became entangled in the tree, according to the fire department in the resort town of McCall.

Gregory was rescued from his perch atop the giant white fir by volunteer firefighter Randy Acker, who owns a tree removal company…”

https://apnews.com/82e406d6daf846d3977a83a400117942

That had to be a daring rescue. The right, or wrong, move by Acker and that plane might come tumbling down on him. Acker deserves a medal.

We don't see too many in trees around here, but it seems that every miniature golf place has an airplane stuck in the side of a fake mountain.

Is that plane recoverable? Or worth the expense to rescue and repair it?

If it has a dataplate it can be fixed. LOL

As to whether it is worth it, that is utterly and completely up to the owner...and likely the insurance company.

People can fix airplanes that are nothing but some rust, dustbunnies and a few scraps of cloth if they are motivated enough and have buckets of cash that they absolutely don't know what to do with.

That one doesn't look that bad. Getting it down will be the fun part.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Is that plane recoverable? Or worth the expense to rescue and repair it?

Recoverable? Probably. Repairable? Absolutely. Economically feasible to repair? Maybe. Depends on the condition (before & after crash).

I’m a few years out of currency on Cub pricing, but I’ll SWAG that a showpiece, special, low-time, no damage history, fresh engine, etc Cub might fetch as much as $50k from the right buyer and a ratty, run-out (close to due for engine overhaul), high time airframe might go for less than $20k, maybe significantly less depending on how much work is needed and how motivated the seller is. Now figure in the cost to retrieve and repair any damage incurred in the “landing” and you’ll have an idea.

In buying “project” airplanes, one generally learns to budget a significant margin for unexpected gotchas. Maybe there is damage you didn’t see, maybe the parts aren’t as available as you thought, maybe the market shifts and the demand isn’t what you expected*, ... If you leave yourself a generous cushion and things are as good or better than you thought, you make bank. If you leave yourself a generous cushion and the unexpected crops up, maybe you don’t lose your rump.

*Airplanes (to most folks) are toys. Cars are necessities. When the economy goes in the tank, airplanes, boats, and other “toys” suffer bigger price hits than necessities like cars and trucks.

Wow, I will share with wife's family as that is where they are from, in fact FIL worked out of there as a smoke jumper for several seasons while in school

quote:

Originally posted by Russ59:
Is that plane recoverable? Or worth the expense to rescue and repair it?

I was working on my Private and flying with my instructor out of a tiny airport with a single gravel strip runway and most of this airport's business was dropping sky divers.

A few days earlier one of their jump twins had an inflight engine problem while climbing to jump altitude and the sky divers decided to jump early. While on final the pilot managed to put the twin in the trees a few hundred yards short of the runway. Pilot and sky divers all made it to the ground safely.

It was an overcast day, low ceiling with rain forecasted, but we had better than minimums to fly so I scheduled a flight. We knew that a helo was scheduled to arrive to lift the plane out of the trees but didn't know when. I was at the controls flying the pattern when my instructor quickly said "my airplane" and took the controls from me. He had spotted the helo a few hundred feet below us hovering just over the tree tops above the wreckage.

I don't know what damage the twin had or how expensive it was going to be to repair it, but apparently it generated enough revenue dropping sky divers to justify its recovery.

A crane suitable to lift would be less than $15K a day, rigging it would be the not fun part.

figure a 100' crane....it's an easy pic once you get it rigged.

quote:

From the linked news article:

A pilot who was trying to crash-land

I have been a Flight Instructor for well over half a century, a commercial pilot for a bit longer than that. I would never, under any circumstances, advise anybody to crash-land an airplane.

We usually try to avoid anything that is crash-like.

quote:

Originally posted by dewhorse:
A crane suitable to lift would be less than $15K a day, rigging it would be the not fun part.

figure a 100' crane....it's an easy pic once you get it rigged.

Assuming the area is accessible by crane....may have to be airlifted once rigged.