LSA Wreck

[wantobe]

Where can I find LSA (Flight Design's CTs, Remos, Tecnam, Ikarus C42, C43, Cessna 162) whole airframe wreck? A friend suggested Air Salvage of Dallas (asod.com (http://asod.com/)) and Wentworthaircraft.com, but I got no luck at either site.

[steveinindy]

Where can I find LSA (Flight Design's CTs, Remos, Tecnam, Ikarus C42, C43, Cessna 162) whole airframe wreck? A friend suggested Air Salvage of Dallas (asod.com (http://asod.com/)) and Wentworthaircraft.com, but I got no luck at either site.

What are you wanting with a busted up airplane? You're unlikely to find one of the new LSAs that would be able to be rebuilt or anything. There aren't many of them to begin with and they don't tend to hold up well enough in a crash to yield a reasonably intact airframe wreck that would be useful for anything other than scrap.

Another word of caution: many of those are composite designs and you do no want to screw around with busted up carbon fiber. It will do nasty crap to your lungs if you inhale it.

[martymayes]

Not all wrecked aircraft end up in salvage yards. Often salvage stored at a salvage yard is not for sale.

Earlier this spring, a Remos LSA was wrecked near hear and it's still stored in a building. When all investigations are compete, I'm guessing the owner (most likely an insurance company) will dispose of the salvage. Insurance companies auction the salvage to high bidder. If I was looking to buy something like that, I'd get on the notification list for property disposal auctions.

[wantobe]

What are you wanting with a busted up airplane? You're unlikely to find one of the new LSAs that would be able to be rebuilt or anything. There aren't many of them to begin with and they don't tend to hold up well enough in a crash to yield a reasonably intact airframe wreck that would be useful for anything other than scrap.


No intention to rebulid. Just collections to appreciate.

Thanks for the alert on the health danger of carbon fiber dust.

[steveinindy]

No intention to rebulid. Just collections to appreciate.

Ah. OK. I was just curious. Since Marty mentioned the insurance companies, I sent out a couple of e-mails to folks I know from them to see if they could tell me who you should talk to about getting notified of this sort of thing. If I hear anything, I will let you know.


Thanks for the alert on the health danger of carbon fiber dust.

When I work around it, I try to wear a high-efficiency particulate dust mask.

[tonycondon]

http://www.aigaviation.com/aviationsalvage/salvagelist.aspx

[wantobe]

When I work around it, I try to wear a high-efficiency particulate dust mask.

Assume that I get an airplane which is a lump of carbon fibre wreck, how can I make it free from carbon fibre dust? Wash it with a water gun first, anything else I can do?

[wantobe]

http://www.aigaviation.com/aviationsalvage/salvagelist.aspx

Great site. What other insurance companies are major players in aviation insurance?

[steveinindy]

Assume that I get an airplane which is a lump of carbon fibre wreck, how can I make it free from carbon fibre dust? Wash it with a water gun first, anything else I can do?

I would not recommend a water spray necessarily except perhaps to minimize aerosolization of the fibers while cutting but even that is something I am not entirely sure of since you're the first person I have ever encountered that wants to do this sort of thing. Usually the only time we cut like that is to either extricate bodies or, less commonly, make the aircraft easier to transport for detailed inspection.

Short of a cleaning akin to what they do to remove asbestos or when prepping damaged aerospace composites for repair, it would be difficult to clean it up to that degree. You would have to remove all of the damaged composite. Usually this is done by cutting the broken edges cleanly and then tightly bagging the but it is not really a practical approach given how CFRP composite tends to be damaged in a crash or hard landing. You would wind up having to remove large swathes of the aircraft in many cases. I would strongly recommend getting the safety regulations for composite disposal and repair. At very least, you would need to wear a particulate mask and Tyvek overalls. Graphite fibers, when broken out of the fabric form, also can tend to cling to clothing which can lead to indirect contamination of your home and exposure of your family.

Like I said, I doubt your project would garner much of a collection to appreciate in any aesthetic or engineering sense. You would just wind up being the proud owner of a bunch of potentially hazardous material that used to be in the shape of an airplane.

[Frank Giger]

Like I said, I doubt your project would garner much of a collection to appreciate in any aesthetic or engineering sense. You would just wind up being the proud owner of a bunch of potentially hazardous material that used to be in the shape of an airplane.

One's man junk is another's art!

Steve's cautions notwithstanding, the danger would probably be minimal if one isn't crawing in it and whacking it with a t-ball bat for a couple of hours while breathing deeply three times a week. The "pneumoconiosis is for the very unlucky" solution is to put a wreck outdoors and let copious amounts of weather and time beat the hell out of it.

If one is just wanting a garden of wrecks to look at I wouldn't worry too much, though I'd probably wear a respirator while positioning them.

For guys like Steve who are around this stuff when it's freshly folded, stapled and mutilated it would be nuts not to wear protection.

[steveinindy]

If one is just wanting a garden of wrecks to look at I wouldn't worry too much, though I'd probably wear a respirator while positioning them.

I still can't see why one would want that. Most LSAs are utterly unrecognizable. Building a collection out of them is like building a car collection out of ones that have been through the compactor beforehand.


For guys like Steve who are around this stuff when it's freshly folded, stapled and mutilated it would be nuts not to wear protection.

Even with the protection, the premiums for health insurance shot up when they found out (due to a cut from torn metal that required more than a few stitches) that I occasionally go out to scenes or examine wreckage at the request of medical examiners or coroners or as a technical adviser/witness for legal proceedings (usually on behalf of the folks defending the pilot before anyone climbs all over me about that!). The fact that I pointed out that most of the wreckage I get anywhere close to is metal didn't help much.