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Help Please

Woodydog

I'm New Here
Unfortunately, I lost my engine and although was lucky enough to glide to a runway I had to do a straight in landing with a 9kt tail wind. I could not stop my RV7A before going off the end and flipped. The damage is substantial. The insurance will cover the damage, however, I do not know where to take my RV to be fixed. Therefore, I am looking for the best shop to fix my RV. I live in the northern California area, however, the insurance will pay to ship the plan to the shop of my choice.

Would you please let me know the names of the ?best recognized? RV shops out there capable of full rebuilds.

Thanks for all your help
john
 
Jay Pratt

Woody,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune and glad to see that you are safe. Working with powerplants could be done by most A&P's or repair shops.

If you need metalwork done on your RV you might want to consider Jay Pratt who owns and runs RV Central at Hicks airfield in Texas, the same field DR and other RV guys fly from.

Good luck
 
Tony

Thanks - I will look him up righ away.
Also thanks, I was very lucky, unfortunatly my RV has a lot of damage...
 
engine

No ideas on the problem yet.
I just took off, was climbing out and at 3,700 ft the MAP went to 5.
I was about 4+ miles NW of the airport, lcky that I was on a climb... so I was able to turn and glide back. The FAA will look into the engine issue.

For now I am just focusing on finding the best shop to repair my RV.
Given that an airplane wih a history of any damage is not good I want to be sure there is a good name/shop behind the repair.

Thanks everyone - I hope to be back up soon.
 
Nose Gear?

Sounds like you did an excellent job of pilotage! Did the 'flip' involve a nose gear collapse? How difficult was it to extracate yourself from the inverted position? Did you have to break the canopy plexi to exit?? Do you have a slider or a tip-up? Did you install a "nose job"

I know these are an awful lot of questions, but these are the things a lot of us worry about and it would be nice to have some first hand knowledge!!

Bob Cowan
RV-7A tip-up awith a "nose job"
 
Totaled

Very sorry to hear this, glad you’re Ok.

I would suggest you might want to fight your insurance to have it totaled. You’re going to need a new prop, engine O/H tear down/inspect, fuselage, tail, canopy, maybe a wing or two. I think from what I've seen it’s pretty well hosed after a flip over:(
 
Jerry Scott!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, I lost my engine and although was lucky enough to glide to a runway I had to do a straight in landing with a 9kt tail wind. I could not stop my RV7A before going off the end and flipped. The damage is substantial. The insurance will cover the damage, however, I do not know where to take my RV to be fixed. Therefore, I am looking for the best shop to fix my RV. I live in the northern California area, however, the insurance will pay to ship the plan to the shop of my choice.

Would you please let me know the names of the ?best recognized? RV shops out there capable of full rebuilds.

Thanks for all your help
john

Jerry Scott!!!!!!!!
...He is located at Chino Airport in southern California. He is very well known in the RV community for his top of the line meticulous workmanship and is considerably closer to you. You may consider giving him a call and let him come look at it, at least you would know what you are looking at, time, rough estimate etc. His phone in (909) 393-1538 We at ASA have a lot of gear parts laying around so if we can be of service just give us a call. Wish you the best with all this. Regards, Allan
 
Thanks all

N743RV -
I have a Tip Up and at the end of the runway there is a marsh, therefore, first a ditch then a 2 foot high mound, I tried to pull back on the stick to try & "jump" it but no good - hit hard front gear collapsed back and flipped hard/fast so the plexi completely shattered upon flipping - I was trapped, lucky there was a plane waiting to take off and after a few minutes they were there to lift the rear tail so I could crawl out. Without them the only option would have been to use the plexi pieces to dig or start to carry a small shovel ... not a good feeling.

Russ -
Thanks The insurance stated that to be totaled the repair cost has to be 80% of insured value. I wonder if there is a law on this?

PerfTech -
Thanks
 
...consider Jay Pratt who owns and runs RV Central at Hicks airfield in Texas, the same field DR and other RV guys fly from.

Good luck

Jay Pratt is very competent and Hicks is quite near where Doug Reeves is based at Northwest Regional Airport.
 
Yes, Hicks (where Jay lives) is about a five minute RV flight from my field.
Great guy....I'd give him the shirt off my back if he needed it.

V/r,
dr
 
Thanks all



Russ -
Thanks The insurance stated that to be totaled the repair cost has to be 80% of insured value. I wonder if there is a law on this?

PerfTech -
Thanks

I don't know if there's a law but after getting a quote it could very well be 80%, labor aint cheap and your paying someone to basically build you a new airplane. neither are parts. Best of luck either way!
 
Agree with Russ

on insurance likely to total plane on results of estimates. Further insurance adjuster knows from experience that often there is concealed damage beyond initial estimates. This can be another 10% over initial estimate. Also they don't want someone to die in plane after they are involved in a huge rebuild. My plane was totalled last year and very probably had less damage than yours. My coverage was $75,000. Ins gave us a check for coverage amount. They did not try in any way to weasel out. Insured by Global Aerospace thru Falcon (EAA) they were great. Only had the coverage for 10 months, had used AIG for the prior 8 years. AIG had a near miss on this, and after their debacle on investment mismanagement they deserved the loss. Reminder that life is not always fair.
 
on insurance likely to total plane on results of estimates. Further insurance adjuster knows from experience that often there is concealed damage beyond initial estimates. This can be another 10% over initial estimate. Also they don't want someone to die in plane after they are involved in a huge rebuild. My plane was totalled last year and very probably had less damage than yours. My coverage was $75,000. Ins gave us a check for coverage amount. They did not try in any way to weasel out. Insured by Global Aerospace thru Falcon (EAA) they were great. Only had the coverage for 10 months, had used AIG for the prior 8 years. AIG had a near miss on this, and after their debacle on investment mismanagement they deserved the loss. Reminder that life is not always fair.

Did they offer you a chance to buy the salvage to rebuild yourself? Or at least components like instrumentation that were not damaged?
 
Sorry to hear about this mishap. GLAD you are ok. Sounds like you were VERY lucky. If I send you $5, would you go purchase lottery tickets? I will split the winnings with you 50/50!!

Hindsight being 20/20, would you have done anything different after the engine quit? How about after you made contact with the runway? Did you lock up the brakes?

I am sure you have pictures...care to share any with us? Helping others learn from this mishap is extremely honorable.
 
Very sorry you have having to deal with the mental and financial fallout from your accident.

I agree with a couple of the above posters, you should do everything possible to have your plane totaled. I suspect that is how the insurance carrier will see it without being prompted once repair estimates are in hand, but you definitely want a large check instead of a plane with major damage history.

From your description, this will be a very, very expensive repair considering airframe and engine rebuild. Hang in there and collect documentation to support your intentions to have the plane totaled. There are a lot of nice planes on the market and you will be able to replace it with a "clean" RV.

Best wishes!
 
Thanks all -

Tkatc,
I did try the lottery thing, but I guess I used up all my luck.
As far as what I learned, I will,,,,,,, practice long glides to airports more often,,, go back and read "Stick and Rudder" again,,,, practice the idea of hitting the spot on a runway when you have a 9kt tail wnd pushing you,,,,, practice slips all the time to better control speed with head wind and tail wind..... do more practice with tail wind something I never did before yet in an emergency you may have to do a streight in with a tail wind,, head wind now seems like cheating... will never hesitate to use flaps while going above flap speed if it is an emergency..

As far as safty, carry an army shovel to be able to dig out of an upside down plane,,, just in case the plexiglass does not break, have a plan to be able to break the plexiglas so as not to be trapped, alawys carry a fire extenguisher just in case possibly a hand held radio..
 
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