Wingtip Strike

Palmpilot

Palmpilot

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
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PUDBY
Display Name
Richard Palm
Home Airfield
Palo Alto (SFO area)
I experienced a wingtip strike this morning. I was taxiing between two buildings, and it knocked about six inches off the end of the left wing. :eek2:

Thank God it was only a dream! :sleep:
 
Palmpilot said:
I experienced a wingtip strike this morning. I was taxiing between two buildings, and it knocked about six inches off the end of the left wing. :eek2:

Thank God it was only a dream! :sleep:
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I dunno, have you seen your plane today? o_O
 
Premonition? :eek:
(let's hope not)

I once taxied up to an FBO and parked. After I shut down, a dude comes running out of the FBO, waving his arms frantically. We look at each other with my co-pilot, quietly thinking "are we on fire?"
Dude reaches us and is chastising me for parking too close to the hangar (my wingtip was safely 3 ft from the door). I told him I parked safely. He repeated that I was too close. I asked him how far I needed to be. He said as far as safely possible. I told him that I followed the hand signals of the marshal. He said there was nobody marshaling me in. I replied "that's right". He stormed off afterwards. *shrug*

Aaaanyway, I hope never to put my wingtip into a hangar or door. That would suck.
Glad yours was only a dream.
You better go check on your airplane. And fly it to test it out, make sure it still flies straight. Any excuse, huh? :)
 
I always hate taxiing in close proximity to buildings and other objects. Always seems way closer than it is. I recently flew commercial and couldn't believe how close some of the aircraft passed on the ramp.
 
mscard88 said:
I dunno, have you seen your plane today? o_O
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I rent.

Which reminds me, one of my favorite rental planes got totaled recently. :cryin:

Fortunately, the student pilot who was flying it was OK.
 
Palmpilot said:
I experienced a wingtip strike this morning.
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I thought maybe you scuffed your shoe...



60396584.jpg
 
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Palmpilot said:
I rent.

Which reminds me, one of my favorite rental planes got totaled recently. :cryin:

Fortunately, the student pilot who was flying it was OK.
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Oh jeez. I think you and I both fly out of PAO? Any plane I might recognize?
 
Palmpilot said:
I experienced a wingtip strike this morning. I was taxiing between two buildings, and it knocked about six inches off the end of the left wing. :eek2:

Thank God it was only a dream! :sleep:
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My first thought was that wingtips must think they deserve more money.....
 
I have mentioned before that I have recurring “Flying Screw-Up Anxiety Nightmares”.

Complicated airspace and landing without a clearance come up a lot.

As far as wingtip clearance goes, in the daytime shadows are your friend - as long as the shadows don’t touch you’ve got clearance. Though the inverse doesn’t necessarily apply, since your wingtip can be higher or lower than the obstruction.
 
FastEddieB said:
I have mentioned before that I have recurring “Flying Screw-Up Anxiety Nightmares”.

Complicated airspace and landing without a clearance come up a lot.

As far as wingtip clearance goes, in the daytime shadows are your friend - as long as the shadows don’t touch you’ve got clearance. Though the inverse doesn’t necessarily apply, since your wingtip can be higher or lower than the obstruction.
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Unless of course it's a cloudy day. Worse yet, winter, with snow on the ramp, and light poles placed way too close to the edge (i.e. some engineer thinking "parking lot").

How do I know? Because it happened to me, many years ago, taxiing an airplane at KPHN. The featureless ramp surface had distorted my sense of distance, and I was paying too much attention to avoiding the tie-down chains. Worst screwup of my flying career so far (and hopefully ever). The only silver lining was that the damage was not structural. It was still mucho expensive however, and a lasting lesson to always double check wingtip clearance.
 
FastEddieB said:
I have mentioned before that I have recurring “Flying Screw-Up Anxiety Nightmares”.
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Last night I was doing some sightseeing with a passenger and got so behind on airspeed and altitude that a downdraft caused me to do a T&G on a road. During the climb out, I forgot to cram the mixture and prop. Ended up in the trees and sheared off the right wing. The plane was totalled but I bought the salvage and turned it into a full scale RC. And then I misjudged something and put it into a house that luckily was empty. And then I woke up.

Should I be worried?
 
asicer said:
Last night I was doing some sightseeing with a passenger and got so behind on airspeed and altitude that a downdraft caused me to do a T&G on a road. During the climb out, I forgot to cram the mixture and prop. Ended up in the trees and sheared off the right wing. The plane was totalled but I bought the salvage and turned it into a full scale RC. And then I misjudged something and put it into a house that luckily was empty. And then I woke up.

Should I be worried?
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I don't know, but I think you should sell the movie rights to that dream.
 
I'm on the first row of hangars at our airport, I have to taxi between the corner of the FBO building and the corner of the hangar row. Not a lot of room! Lower left corner of picture.

Capture.JPG
 
Bill Jennings said:
Not a lot of room! Lower left corner of picture.
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Just keep the nose wheel on the line...if you hit a structure its on the airport's dime... (at least that's the theory)... Not that I would barrel wistfully down a taxi-way trusting in that theory... However, I know of a recent incident where a guy followed a taxi-line into a, deeper than anticipated, drainage grate, on a newly paved ramp... airport bought a teardown on a recent overhaul after the prop strike.
 
FlySince9 said:
Just keep the nose wheel on the line...if you hit a structure its on the airport's dime... (at least that's the theory)... Not that I would barrel wistfully down a taxi-way trusting in that theory... However, I know of a recent incident where a guy followed a taxi-line into a, deeper than anticipated, drainage grate, on a newly paved ramp... airport bought a teardown on a recent overhaul after the prop strike.
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Assuming you know your aircraft's wingspan meets the design criteria for the taxilane. You go down a taxilane designed for Group 1 aircraft in a Group 2, you are on your own. You are responsible as PIC for knowing where you airplane fits.
 
midwestpa24 said:
Assuming you know your aircraft's wingspan meets the design criteria for the taxilane. You go down a taxilane designed for Group 1 aircraft in a Group 2, you are on your own. You are responsible as PIC for knowing where you airplane fits.
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Of course... I thought I made that clear with "Not that I would barrel wistfully down a taxi-way trusting in that theory.."
 
About twice a year I will have a dream where the floor of the airplane falls away during flight. Nothing falls out, just the floor goes away. I can see t he ground below me which has me thinking this is not good, but the plane flies just the same as with the floor. I always wake up before landing....
 
Zeldman said:
About twice a year I will have a dream where the floor of the airplane falls away during flight. Nothing falls out, just the floor goes away. I can see t he ground below me which has me thinking this is not good, but the plane flies just the same as with the floor. I always wake up before landing....
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Bet it'd be the smoothest landing of your life!
 
Zeldman said:
About twice a year I will have a dream where the floor of the airplane falls away during flight. Nothing falls out, just the floor goes away. I can see t he ground below me which has me thinking this is not good, but the plane flies just the same as with the floor. I always wake up before landing....
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Is Fred Flinstone your copilot?
 
Zeldman said:
About twice a year I will have a dream where the floor of the airplane falls away during flight. Nothing falls out, just the floor goes away. I can see t he ground below me which has me thinking this is not good, but the plane flies just the same as with the floor. I always wake up before landing....
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Somebody needs some time in a Seeker

306-seeker-aircraft-a2-static-abq-sunport-web0118-1.jpg
 
My flying dream was very different. I hadn’t flown in almost 4 years, one morning last September I had a dream I was checking out a Cherokee Six to buy. In the dream the interior was the size of a small airliner lol. They let me “test drive” it, it felt so good to be flying again and I remember thinking “If I buy this I can share aviation with my boys before the older ones are grown up”. I woke up and said- “it’s time to make that happen” Three months later in November I bought my Cessna 140 and am back in the saddle again!
 
BigBadLou said:
Dude reaches us and is chastising me for parking too close to the hangar (my wingtip was safely 3 ft from the door). I told him I parked safely. He repeated that I was too close. I asked him how far I needed to be. He said as far as safely possible.
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I'm guessing that dude posts on the internet a lot.

I had a nightm -, er, dream that my girlfriend was taxiing my plane and creamed about 4' of wing off on a hangar. She couldn't fathom needing to watch that.

I told her about the dream and we both had a good laugh about her ever touching the controls.
 
You guys are lucky, I am always trying to get to my airplane so I can fly it, but someone or something always gets in my way and I never dream about actually being in it and flying it. Constantly frustrated! Meanwhile I'm staring at 5" of snow on the deck out back knowing tomorrow it's supposed to be near 50* but with heavy fog that may not allow us to go VFR. More of the same I guess *sigh*.
 
I was taxing out of the lower level at Santa Monica, (SMO), got distracted and scared myself about to death when I realized how close my wingtip was to the wall. Piper Seneca II.
 
BillTIZ said:
I was taxing out of the lower level at Santa Monica, (SMO), got distracted and scared myself about to death when I realized how close my wingtip was to the wall. Piper Seneca II.
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That’s because they moved the wall closer to you at the same time they shortened the runway.
 
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