Repeat After Us... It Could Have Been MUCH Worse

ANN Note: Several of the pictures accompanying this article have been "photoshopped" in order to make the damage more visible to our readers, via extra contrast, sharpening or highlighting... this process does not minimize the nature of the damage, but in fact may tend to make the actual damage appear worse than it shows to the naked eye. -- Jim Campbell, ANN Editor-In-Chief

While the rumors have been running hot and heavy about the damage suffered by over 60 aircraft at the Columbia Aircraft factory in Bend, OR, an onsite inspection by ANN indicates that the damage may be far less extensive than feared.

ANN had the opportunity to inspect dozens of aircraft that were involved in the freak June 12th storm that dumped golf ball sized hail on more than 60 aircraft that were being prepped for delivery. 

In an exclusive June 23rd ANN story on the storm, Columbia Aircraft CEO Bing Lantis reported that he missed the missed the storm, personally... since he was visiting the Atlanta offices of Columbia's lead insurance provider, AIG.

"I was giving a presentation on what a safe risk we are," said Lantis ruefully. "I'm told the hail came down suddenly... it was not a hot day, not the kind of day you'd associate with a storm at all."

Lantis adds workers only had time to pull one plane off the ramp before the hailstones came... and once the hail came, it pelted the ramp outside the factory for 12 minutes.

"Hailstones were hitting the runway and taxiway, and bouncing 10 feet in the air," Lantis says workers told him.

Lantis told ANN that the curved fuselages of the aircraft seemed to have withstood the hail attack well... in fact, for the first two days after the storm, it appeared there was no damage to the planes at all.

Upon further inspection, however, Lantis said "you can see marks where hailstones impacted the surfaces," when the light is right. The marks appear in the plane's normally glossy paint, he says -- with no apparent damage to the composite skin.

ANN was given unrestricted access to the ramp where the damaged aircraft awaited final inspection and repair, and walked through the rows of aircraft, each of them featuring small black circles (made by Columbia staff) indicating areas of hail impact revealed by intensive inspection after Mother Nature had done her worst.

While the FAA and Columbia's insurers are working to come up with a solution that not only makes sure that whatever damage that may have been done is fixed, and gets these aircraft into the hands of owners ASAP; the owners have apparently become just as concerned about the delay in getting their aircraft as the damage from the hail, as word reaches them that the structures are holding up well to the scrutiny lavished upon them thus far.

Please note that ANN's inspection was admittedly cursory and not performed by an A&P or other qualified aircraft technician (though we have consulted with a number of qualified techs about the issue), we had the chance to look over dozens of aircraft, most of which were covered with countless small grease pencil circles where inspectors indicated that hail had hit. Our visual inspection, outside on a sunny afternoon revealed that of over 2000 such circles -- inspected both directly and obliquely (from an angle by which any potential depression was more likely to be discerned), barely a dozen showed any actual impact depression, cracking or other evidence of external stigmata.

In hundreds of impacts inspected by ANN, under close scrutiny and the use of magnifying lenses, areas circled by Columbia's inspectors showed no visibly discernible evidence of damage. Even attempts to feel for depressions or to "tap" the structure to listen for evidence of a change in tone, a lack of aural continuity, or other overt response revealed nothing we could point to as out of the ordinary.

In those rare areas where cracking or paint penetration was actually evident, the damaged area was taped over to prevent moisture or other contamination from getting under the outside paint layer and further exacerbating the potential for damage. From what we have seen, Columbia's tech crews have done an amazing job of not only inspecting each aircraft, but containing the potential for further harm.

On several aircraft that were already being sanded/stripped of paint and primer, close visual inspection of the structure and the underlying composite material/fabric has revealed no breaks in the actual composite materials -- and are (thus far) requiring little more than refinishing (shown below, in process) to restore the aircraft to flying status.

The most visible evidence of damage to the aircraft has apparently occurred to the few metallic (and some plastic) assemblies attached to the aircraft. In several cases, the metallic housings surrounding the wingtip lights took hits that damaged the aluminum shell, while several of the static wicks attached to the trailing edges of the ailerons were hit and actually severed or bent the insulated cables that comprise the internal portion of the assembly.

A few of the protective lens covers that protect the landing lights were also damaged.

In many cases, the lack of damage has made a difficult task all that more rigorous. "Just because you can't see the damage is no reason to take for granted that there is none... we're going over every airplane very carefully," noted Columbia Aircraft's VP of Customer Care, David McRae.

As an example of the kind of damage that Columbia staffers had once feared would occur as the storm was underway, McRae showed ANN several staff cars in the company parking lot, that had been hit by the hail... some of which suffered thousands of dollars of damage (and indeed, a local car dealer is reportedly having to total millions of dollars of vehicles that were caught in the storm). In comparison to a horribly pitted BMW, the Columbia birds looked like they came off very well, indeed.

Columbia staffers are becoming more and more impressed, as the inspections progress, of the ability of modern composite structures to take the impacts of intense hail bombardment with little or no permanent damage. Tests conducted with sample structures exposed to impacts that were at least twice that of those estimated to have occurred in the June 12th storm, have also shown no permanent physical damage to the structures, and have further confirmed the resilience of the current crop of composite aircraft designs. In the coming weeks, Columbia's inspections, the FAA's judgement and other engineering oversight is going to provide some amazing information about the nature of composite structures (normal wing Cross-section shown below) when exposed to such types of impact damage.

ANN as been promised to be kept up to date of the progress made by Columbia in bringing the damaged aircraft to a deliverable condition (and indeed, Columbia has been more than forthcoming about the matter as the information became known). Columbia CEO Bing Lantis has been adamant about making sure that customers picking up new aircraft be able to have complete confidence in the birds, something that has been clouded by a rumor mill (often associated with competitors unfortunately taking advantage of the situation) that has greatly over-hyped the actual damage that was done. In fact; as time goes on, Columbia is becoming more and more impressed with what they are finding and the knowledge that they are accumulating as a result.

"We have a unique situation," Lantis said, "because there's never been a claim for hail damage on a Columbia -- and I would guess that's probably pretty true of any other composite airplane. It's a very durable material."

ANN will have more info on this story as it becomes available.

FMI: www.flycolumbia.com