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Innovative Maintenance Concept

This is what happens when you bed your Piper Super Cub down with salmon in the cargo pod in an area frequented by Ursus arctos horribilis.

torn

This is what happens when you let Aviation Ordnancemen do your repair work for you.

fixed

For the record, no I don’t know if an ordie did the patch work there. But he could have.

Would have.

PS – Nice work keeping her legal by penning in the registration atop the duct tape.

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31 comments to Innovative Maintenance Concept

  • Mythbusters just did a show about the things you can do with Duct-tape…

    Funny show and they made a Cannon and a boat out of nothing But Duct-tape…and both worked!

    There are 6 essential items you need to make sure you can repair almost anything

    1. Duct-Tape
    2. Superglue
    3. Wireties (multiple sizes and lengths)
    4. Sheet rock screws (best way to make a wooden patch in the bottom of a boat stay in place)
    5. Multi-tool (Don’t leave home without it – take it from a Seabee who carried one in Iraq)

    and the newest addtion…

    6. Mighty Putty !!! – Billy Mays may be dead BUT his stuff lives on – I have used it and it is highly endorsed !

    I Like the plane as it flew home and got them away from the Bears…..damn Yogi & Boo-boo !!

  • Semicolon

    Looks like a good repair job to me. The Mythbusters made an entire sailboat out of duct tape, including the sail. Worked great and didn’t leak. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-duct-tape/

  • G-man

    Hey Hey BooBoo, looka me, I’m a pilot!

    Guess they didn’t worry about the tape being 100 kt or 500 kt tape huh? Mythbusters away. Still all in all probably stronger now than the original.

    • Flugelman

      Haven’t heard the term “100 kt tape” in a long time. Had some sappers get aboard NAF Cam Ranh Bay back in ’71. They threw a satchel charge into the revetment under the tail of one of our P-3s. The resulting holes were patched with “100 kt tape and the plane was flown back to Cubi for more extensive repairs. Prolly could have finished the deployemt with the tape…

  • Hank

    I like the gun strapped under the wing.
    Wonder if he has a string attached to the trigger? Probably took a sharpie and painted a circle on his windshield to act as his “HUD”.

    Nothing like an ariel attack on an elk,, eh.

  • SSG Jeff (USAR)

    I gotta ask – how many rolls?

  • Big Daddy

    As an ordananceman (okay, okay, FORMER ordnanceman) I was at first offended. But then I saw the incredible ingenuity and skill that must have been used to execute such a repair.

    And now, I’m proud!!! Although I would have at least used spray paint for the registration number. ;)

    • Ron Snyder

      BD, as a former “Munitions Maintenance Specialist” (AF had to have long names to justify our air conditioners), I would also add that this appears to be special haze gray Gorilla Tape, not just any run-of-the-mill duct tape!

      Spray painting of the registration numbers was left for the next depot repair station to do. :)

  • satch

    You laugh … I flew a hoover home from JAX with a panel held partially on by ordie tape. ‘Course 450/.79 mach isn’t peeling back the corners on much, now, is it …

  • satch

    p’cola rather … we were on way FROM jax. Gray on the outside, mush on the inside.

  • STEVEC

    I particularly like the “gun rack” under the port wing – it even looks like the muzzle is outside the prop arc. Gotta wonder if that’s the normal gun storage location or whether, maybe, based on the damage the owner is off to do some strafing of the local bears?

    In the enlarged photo the tail green paint job looks suspiciously like a spray-can job, too. Interesting place, Alaska.

  • Ron Snyder

    Courtesy of Maggie’s Farm: http://bit.ly/2KGC0k The gentleman narrating is one of the reasons I like our friends to the North; short, to the point and no BS. Would love to have his hat!

    Just to show you that I’m not biased: http://bit.ly/3zW5JB

    It is a staple in my household.

    Regards,

    • Comjam

      Ron,
      Watching Red Green will explain to any woman everything they really need to know about men. Ever. After The Doctor watched “We Can’t Help It, We’re Men,” she finally “got it.”

      And I’m pretty sure I’ve rented canoes from Red on some of my trips to The Great White North :)

      Keep your stick on the ice,
      Comjam

      • AW1 Tim

        “Duct Tpae”, the handyman’s secret weapon.

        My favorite episode is where he makes an air hockey game out of an old clothes dryer some cardboard and a roll of duct tape.. :)

      • butch

        If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

        Possum Lodge oath: I’m a man. I can change. If I have to. I guess.

        One of my favorite bits was when he changed a car headlight, using a six-foot pry bar and – of course – duct tape.

  • pdxjim

    I like the right aileron ? repair that appears to be plywood. Hope it is marine plywood for that environment!

  • Dust

    Think that right aileron “repair” is actually a control lock.

  • ChrisP

    When I opened my mail this AM, there was something in my in-box from my friend at the Seattle FSDO (Flight Standards District Office – FAA). It was this whole series of pictures, from the original damage to the fly-away state. I couldn’t believe that the bear actually popped both tundra-tires! The Feds know, and are amused. Alaska works under different rules than the lower 48, thank God.

    Cheers!
    ChrisP

  • At least test pilots get parachutes.I’m guessing this guy is a long way from a repair station, The duct tape needs to last a while at 100 kts.

  • Spencer

    I wonder if the air flow over a duct taped surface is more efficient then that of a fabric surface. :)

  • oldskydog

    Just routine in Alaska….like a combat zone. I hit an eagle once just outside Wrangell Island. It put a huge hole in the leading edge of the C-130 wing which was temporarily repaired with some aluminum and sheet metal screws. If only we had had duct tape!
    the National Fish and Wildlife Service tried to prosecute me for murdering the eagle, national symbol and all…but he was the agressor!

  • OldT6Pilot

    I’d fly it in a minute – just not from the sandbar he likely landed on….

  • MaxDamage

    There’s a 3M plant about 20 miles from Chez Max, I am pondering the idea of building a World War 1 bi-plane, using duct tape instead of doped fabric, and making them pay for it. They can fly it to air shows, write it off on the advertising budget. Perhaps a Stearman 75 is the ticket, it being so much easier to find Lycoming and Continental motors than the Clerget from a Sopwith Camel.

    Anybody here who ever went through an engineering program remembers the contests to build canoes out of concrete and the little race cars with 5hp Briggs motors. Building an aircraft out of adhesives would actually be relevant to both strength of materials and composites courses. I’m suprised it’s not happened already, especially with the AeroE students.

    – Max

    • Spencer

      Better get them to come up with some better glue. That stuff doesn’t hold up too well after a year or two of directl sunlight.

  • I’ll take 100mph tape over Duct tape any day. Like Spencer said, DT doesn’t hold up well to sunlight. Then again, I suspect that it only had to hold him until he got back home – probably not very long. And, depending on the time of year, there may not have been much direct sunlight. It IS Alaska, you know.

    SK1 ~ I’d add 550 cord to that list.

  • Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN Retired

    Many years ago, when I was a young AMH2 in VA-145, I secured a blivet access with ordnance tape over the panel to blivet gap in addition to the screws. It had the Skipper’s sword in it for a trip to Miramar. Made it. No problem going and the guys in VF-2 got it secured for the return trip in the same manner.
    Sometimes it is a good thing to have around!

  • SFC D

    The trick is to wrap the tape from the tailfeathers forward…keeps the slipstream from peeling the tape back.

  • Curtis

    fading away now but seriously, a stencil kit and can of black spraypaint cost nearly nothing at all. Anybody with pride in such a job well done well, massive stencil, huge reg numbers, even a well phrased, “HEY DOT WOULD YOU MARRY ME!”
    you’d have flown the north country beaches from Carlsbad down to Ocean Beach with folks pointing at you and going, “cool, check that dude out”!

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