Damaged Piet
August, 2004


Pieters,

Sad news to report. After I left Brodhead and with an overnight stop in Marshalltown, I arrived in Jefferson IA.

Early the next morning, I took off and headed west over the town. It was a beautiful morning, slightly hazy wih the sun just coming over the horizon. I was just over the west edge of town in a cruise climb configuration at about 500 feet when the engine quit, just like someone turned off the ignition. I only had one choice, which was a small backyard pasture of a home on the edge of town.

At one end of the field, there was a gap in between some trees and so I headed there, "threaded the needle" and put Mountain Piet down. The terrain was uphill and so the rollout was going to be fairly short, but still dicey whether or not I could get the plane stopped before the barn, so I decided to ground loop Piet. As I started to swing around to the right, the left wing struck some large posts about 1/2 way out on the span. The impact swung the plane around to the left and next thing I knew, I had a crumpled wing wrapped around the left side of Mountain Piet.

I climbed out and looked around expecting someone to come out of one of the nearby houses. Dead silence! No one showed up. I got the camera out and decided to take a few pictures of the plane along with the offending posts. Still no one! I put the camera away and walked up to the house which was located behind the barn and found a small shop with the radio going and a sign that read, "Rug Weaving".

Went inside and found an older gentleman working on a loom. Told him that I had just crashed my plane in his pasture, and asked to use the phone. "Over there" he said. and kept on weaving. Got a card out of my wallet and called the manager of the Jefferson Airport hoping that he was up. He answered and said he would come out right away, "What's the address?" I asked the man who was still weaving and he said "811 West South Street" and I repeated it to the airport manager.

The man weaving stopped, looked me over and asked if I was hurt, I said no, he went back to weaving the rug he was working on. Acted as if the crash was an everyday occurance. We talked for awhile about how he got into the rug weaving business, where he sold them and how he made them etc. Finally he said, "Well, let's go take a look." We went out and looked the situation over. Satisfied he went back to the shop, I went out and sat on the curb in front of the house waiting for Kirk, the airport manager, to arrive.

Kirk arrived and we figured out the tools required and both of us went to the airport to get them. Still no one around the plane. Kirk phoned a friend who had a trailer and he said he would help. Went back to the pasture and found a neighbor had come out of his house along with several kids standing around the Mountain Piet just respectfully looking things over. We took the wings off, loaded the plane, I went back to the shop and thanked the Weaver for the use of his pasture and then we headed for the airport. There was a tight hangar and we put Piet in there.

Tried to start engine and it would start right away, run a moment and then die. Fuel pressure OK, but acted as if the filter had clogged up. No water in fuel when we checked, I was in no mood to pull cowl and start trouble shooting. Locked up hangar and called friend who was at Oshkosh on his cell phone. He said would come in his new RV-8 and retrieve me. Good, I guess that I will spend a few unplanned days at the show! We flew home in the -8 monday.

The damage to Piet is confined to the wing which is toast, but I would also pull the center section and take a close look at it. The front spar of the center section shows slight damage where the metal fitting attaches to the wing panel. Everything else on Mountain Piet seems OK.

I simply don't have the heart to build another wing panel for the plane so am going to sell it where is and as is, for the best offer. Anyone interested?

John

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