VERY Good News!
We went out to the field this morning right after breakfast to go plane-hunting again, for Mr. Empire’s Senior (the one the wing came off). He actually went out into the woods while I waited and played contact person in the pit area, since he has rubber boots and I don’t.
Maybe half an hour after he went out there, I got a radio call that he’d found out what happened; the mounting block for the wing dowel had come out of the fuselage. I asked what he’d found, and it was the fuse — almost intact! His comment, as closely as I can remember: "When [Bipeman] built this, he didn’t build an airplane, he built a tank!"
He stayed out a bit longer looking for the wing (no luck yet), so we figure it’s still up in the trees somewhere, and we may not find it till after the leaves fall in a couple of months. But we’re having a major (for us) celebration at the recovery of the fuselage, missing only the torn-out mounting block and the main landing gear. The engine and all the radio equipment looked intact, and he’s checking it right now for hidden damage.
And he had me check, just in case — Sig does in fact carry a wing kit for the Senior, in case we can’t find the original. I’m delighted — even though I don’t fly the gas birds (aka "slimers"), the Senior is a very versatile workhorse. He uses it for aerial photography, parachute-dummy drops, carrying my non-motorized gliders up, and just about anything else that seems interesting.
Nor are we the only ones astonished at how little damage was done, going through large trees from about 300′ up. You can include everyone out at the field when he brought it back, including Bipeman — who was also, and quite justifiably, delighted at its condition!
