Plane Crash Recovery Big Lake Alaska

[lv2plyguitar 172]

 

Edited 24 Aug 2018 by lv2plyguitar
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[Yamma-Fox 403]

Please... oh PLEASE never let there be a time when my plane goes for a helicopter ride!

[C5Engineer 1170]

That looks very expensive!

[lv2plyguitar 172]

It is typically $5000 a pop.

[Guest]

Been there done that.....

It cost me $2000 and I did all the rigging for the flight out myself. One hour of helicopter time total at $2000/hr from takeoff to landing back at home base.

They dropped a line and a friend connected it to my pre-rigged plane. At the other end they set it down on a trailer I drove to the nearest airport. They lowered in into place and hit the quick release. They never landed thru the whole process. I never met the pilots in person. Everything was arranged over the phone.

And yes....it was no fun when it was my plane. But it was an awesome experience in and of itself and I learned a LOT about rigging for helicopter tow and a lot of other things.

I used a dead tree for the drogue to keep the plane pointed in the right direction during the flight and it worked great. The ropes hanging down are tag lines we set up to grab so we could center the plane as it was being lowered to the trailer. It all went exactly as planned. It's pretty windy and loud under the helicopter during placement on the trailer even though it must have been a hundred feet up! 

Not the best time, but a big and valuable education. 

Edited 27 Aug 2018 by Chris Bolkan