185 Rescue in Alaska

That was cool. I love the sign on the panel of the plane flying in parts: "This plane flies on FUEL, not THANKS..."
 
That was very cool thanks for posting it Mark, and by the way good to see you back.
 
Think they filed?
 
Don't post this over at VAF; those guys will be ****ed they've been using bucked rivets when, obviously, sheet metal screws are good enough!

:)
 
jhausch said:
Nope, I never saw them deburr a single edge or hole. :D
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The big question I have is, why didn't they just haul in a wing and replace it.

I saw a recovery of a 185 by a Beaver where both wings were on one float, and the fuselage was on the other.

a beaver can haul one wing easy. land shorter than the 185 and get off shorter.

Seems to me, they did it the hard / dangerous way
 
I had the same thought. Perhaps they didn't have an intact right wing in the salvage yard and couldn't locate one within a reasonable time/space.
But it would have been a lot easier to plumb a new wing than fiddle around with all the sheet metal screws.

Bending the rear spar back so the wooden staves would line up would give me the willys. Even for a short ferry flight ...
 
Way over dramatized but still VERY cool.
 
twdeckard said:
I

Bending the rear spar back so the wooden staves would line up would give me the willys. Even for a short ferry flight ...
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It wasn't a short ferry flight, look up the spot and figure the distance to ANC, its about 4 hours.

you'd go south to Lake Liamna and thru lake Clark pass, and the Brooks range. look it up on the Kodiak sectional and the Anchorage sectional.

that flight is scarry with a good aircraft, I would not advise any pilot in the lower 48 try it with out prior training. and a good knowledge of the area, because it all looks alike.

heres a pic of lake Ilamna eastern end, it is a lonely place, but there are more homes there now than the last time I flew there.
 

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So, the question would be, what aircraft would be long enough to contain a wing and haul it into an 800 foot clearway..... prolly was unavailable. You might be able to get a half wing into a Norseman....

I wonder if the son just ran a tank out of fuel....
 
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What WAS the cause of engine failure? They repair the wing but not the engine, was it fuel exhaustion?
 
bbchien said:
So, the question would be, what aircraft would be long enough to contain a wing and haul it into an 800 foot clearway..... prolly was unavailable. You might be able to get a half wing into a Norseman....

I wonder if the son just ran a tank out of fuel....
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it's called an external load permit, they put the wing on the float of the beaver.

a turbin beaver will get floats out of the water in 500 feet.

with my old radial powered nordi I pulled a 172 out of dillingham with the fuselage on one float, the 2 floats on the other side and all the flight controls, and float rigging inside but the wings were not worth the bother to load them. but I could have loaded them under the Norii float rigging and she would have hauled them,,,,, long before the new rules of external load permits.... :(

For those who do not know what aq Nordlund Norsman is
 

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This is a float question in general, will planes takeoff in water faster than land?
 
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