unbelievable midair today

[jsoceanlord]

'just another routine day today, except when I landed at vieques, puerto rico in my trisalander to pick up cargo, my friend flying a full load of passengers in his caravan (ISLA NENA) was missing four feet of his right wing, after colliding with a vieques air link islander (while in the pattern at vieques!)

both planes landed ok - though the caravan had no right aileron

unreal (although i've crashed a balloon and a ce 210)

that's all i know

 

[Dignan]

Wow, pretty wild. Does Sammy G. still own Isla Nena? And do they still have either of their Islanders (555DM or 8TA if I remember right)? Just wondering. Glad to hear everyone made it through okay. Take care, fly safe and have some tostones for me. Can't find 'em where I live now.

D

 

[BigFlyr]

Trislander?... Isn't that what they call the Puertorican DC-10?

 

[jsoceanlord]

yeah, sammy's still the boss

my puerto rican dc-10 will fly on one engine if lightly loaded.

i'm not sure but i think sammy had one of his islanders back flying today in place of the caravan.

his caravan landed with the right aileron completely gone. it looks about like about the most damage it could take and still fly.

i heard the pilot's were talking baseball etc on the radio and bumped into each other final. weird. must've been staring at the instruments. the caravan can do some weird stuff - maybe the pilot was coming in fast and planning to go into reverse on short final.

the way i heard it is that both pilots are in trouble (FAA). caravan guy did a good job landing. it was full of people.

part of the problem was the monotonous routine these guys fly - like 30 landings a day. (i just go to my out station and sit 10 hours).

i was kind of traumatized; it's one thing to read about accidents, like the c-130 firebomber, but it's another to be right there.

(I met Mr Hawkers a couple years ago at an air attack base north of los angeles, when he was flying a c-130)

 

[Dignan]

Thanks for the info. Talking baseball on final, eh? Gotta love that island flying. As for the monotonous schedule, I've got a few pages of CPX-VQS-FDO-SJU-STT-SJU-CPX-VQS-CPX-FDO et al. Kinda miss 'em now. Take it easy and fly safe.

D