Ed_Wischmeyer
Well Known Member
Today was Insurance Adjuster day at the airport, where 17 or 18 insurance adjusters, fire origin specialists, lawyers, and business representatives converged on the building with the eight T hangars in the recent fire. ATF was there months ago to determine the origin/cause, but nobody seems to have heard anything from them. (ATF has a reputation for being really slow).
One fire origin specialist and one lawyer asked us all to move away from the hangar building so that they could take exterior photos, just as is taught in aircraft accident investigation. I volunteered to share my photos with them, referring to the photos on my cell phone. When I got home and checked, I've got 200 MB of photos...
There were seven aircraft affected, plus an upholstery shop that specialized in very high end vehicles, including yachts, I'm told. On the north side of the building, starting at the east end, were the upholstery shop, Cessna 182 (reduced to aluminum soot on the hangar floor); Grumman Cheetah (an owner's pride of 23 years, severe heat damage that caused the dorsal fin, the plastic rudder cap, the headliner, and the windshield to sag, among other things. Also, good chance that the wing bonding adhesives let loose); and my RV-9A (soot and corrosive gases, no heat damage detected after condition inspection). On the other side, starting at the east end, were a Cirrus SR-20 that had been totaled due to a hard landing on the nosewheel (tail and fuselage top melted/burnt, wings superficially okay. The parachute rocket deployed in the hangar); two undamaged SR-20s that were pulled out of their hangars when the fire started; and a Mooney (damage unknown, but its hangar looked like mine with soot everywhere and at least one ceiling light that fell down. Damage probably comparable to my RV-9A).
Final tally is an Cirrus SR-20 that was already totaled is now totally totaled, Cessna 182 and Grumman Cheetah totaled, Mooney and RV-9A minor damage. That's like the definition of "minor surgery," which refers to somebody else's surgery.
The steel hangar walls at the eastern half of the building were severely deformed by heat. Structural elements were warped, possibly even the largest ones. Firefighters cut holes in the walls for access to the fire.
The RV-9A is very flyable at this point, but there are a number of items yet to be replaced, plus the paint needs to be touched up. Getting the avionics settings completely restored was an ordeal, a tale in itself, but I've since reformatted the avionics settings document for ease of use (lessons learned the hard way), and made sure everything is correct.
The schedule was for them to examine the hangars from 9AM - 3PM, but since I have The Cold That Will Not Go Away, I was completely exhausted after an hour, rested in the car for 15 minutes, then drove home.
With low time in the RV-9A over the last 11 weeks, the Smokey Mountains between here and Thanksgiving at my sister's, and weather that can change between here and there, that trip is cancelled. I'll wait till my energy is restored post-cold and my skills are back to tip-top shape so that I can be fully alert to any still-lurking post-fire gremlins.
Working on old pilot, gave up on bold...
One fire origin specialist and one lawyer asked us all to move away from the hangar building so that they could take exterior photos, just as is taught in aircraft accident investigation. I volunteered to share my photos with them, referring to the photos on my cell phone. When I got home and checked, I've got 200 MB of photos...
There were seven aircraft affected, plus an upholstery shop that specialized in very high end vehicles, including yachts, I'm told. On the north side of the building, starting at the east end, were the upholstery shop, Cessna 182 (reduced to aluminum soot on the hangar floor); Grumman Cheetah (an owner's pride of 23 years, severe heat damage that caused the dorsal fin, the plastic rudder cap, the headliner, and the windshield to sag, among other things. Also, good chance that the wing bonding adhesives let loose); and my RV-9A (soot and corrosive gases, no heat damage detected after condition inspection). On the other side, starting at the east end, were a Cirrus SR-20 that had been totaled due to a hard landing on the nosewheel (tail and fuselage top melted/burnt, wings superficially okay. The parachute rocket deployed in the hangar); two undamaged SR-20s that were pulled out of their hangars when the fire started; and a Mooney (damage unknown, but its hangar looked like mine with soot everywhere and at least one ceiling light that fell down. Damage probably comparable to my RV-9A).
Final tally is an Cirrus SR-20 that was already totaled is now totally totaled, Cessna 182 and Grumman Cheetah totaled, Mooney and RV-9A minor damage. That's like the definition of "minor surgery," which refers to somebody else's surgery.
The steel hangar walls at the eastern half of the building were severely deformed by heat. Structural elements were warped, possibly even the largest ones. Firefighters cut holes in the walls for access to the fire.
The RV-9A is very flyable at this point, but there are a number of items yet to be replaced, plus the paint needs to be touched up. Getting the avionics settings completely restored was an ordeal, a tale in itself, but I've since reformatted the avionics settings document for ease of use (lessons learned the hard way), and made sure everything is correct.
The schedule was for them to examine the hangars from 9AM - 3PM, but since I have The Cold That Will Not Go Away, I was completely exhausted after an hour, rested in the car for 15 minutes, then drove home.
With low time in the RV-9A over the last 11 weeks, the Smokey Mountains between here and Thanksgiving at my sister's, and weather that can change between here and there, that trip is cancelled. I'll wait till my energy is restored post-cold and my skills are back to tip-top shape so that I can be fully alert to any still-lurking post-fire gremlins.
Working on old pilot, gave up on bold...
