On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 23:25:49 -0800, Sunworshipper
wrote:

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 02:14:59 GMT, Don Bruder wrote:

In article .com,
wrote:

I have looked everywhere,
snip
Like others have said the spar is the main structure of the wing to
the fuselage. It's common with crop dusters to come back with cuts
from tree branches that go all the way to the spar (usually set in the
first 1/4 of the wing). The A&P would inspect it and then we would
clean the insecticide off with acetone and duct tape it. The critical
leading edges have steel knives on them for cutting power lines and
such. I've often wondered how much the stall characteristics change
from having those.

I've yet to see a crop dusting pilot not duck when going under power
lines and they have even a bigger knife in front of them. What is wild
is plane crash scenes , I'm about up to about 5. I'd love to see a big
plane crash site minus the people parts of course. Better yet getting
a close up tour of flight 799+1 put back together.

After re-reading your description of the plane it sounds like he
should have been stuck up in the lines or died. That plane is a total
loss.

And after the pilot ducked and came through on the deck, I had to hit
the dirt because he flew over me about 3' high. This was my dad, and
I was flagging (before Loran and GPS). Yuk, that spray stunk.

One of our pilots was returning home, felt a slight tug (not good when
you're flying), and looked back to see the messenger wire falling
away. At the same time, the flare went off at a nearby chemical
plant. He had clipped the little messenger wire on a high voltage
line running to the plant with the landing gear, no damage to the
plane. He didn't tell us for a while. I don't know if they ever
figured it out.

One of our cropduster friend's son died flying into high voltage
lines. It stopped the plane, then flipped it back onto the ground.

Pete Keillor