Curiosity Surrounds Flipped and Destroyed Airplane at Airport 

SAN ANGELO, TX — A small, general aviation plane has been resting upside down on the tarmac at San Angelo’s Mathis Field since Thursday’s thunderstorms. The plane, with its N-number registration taped over, appears to be a total loss.

It is a Vans RV-7, a homebuilt side-by-side two-seater with a bubble canopy and dual stick controls. Airport security has cordoned off the plane where it presumably sits until its owners arrive and an insurance adjuster can make an assessment. 

Linemen working the flight line said the plane was tied down but a microburst during Thursday’s storm picked the RV-7 up and flipped it. Other planes, including a like-model RV-7, were seen nearby the flipped plane and we raised the question about why the nearby planes didn’t suffer the same fate?

Some of the planes were moved temporarily to inside a hangar, we were told. Other airplanes were also tied down. Upon inspection, it appeared that the tie-down ropes for the damaged RV-7 were small in diameter — smaller in diameter than all other turndown ropes on the field that we inspected — and the skinny ropes appeared to have snapped. 

The Vans RV-7 is a kit built aircraft that is very popular. Depending upon the avionics, paint, and other equipment, an RV-7 can fetch between $140,000 and $170,000. It is powered by a Lycoming 180 hp IO-360 engine. The plane can be built with either a tricycle gear or taildragger configuration. The injured plane at Mathis is the taildragger version.

Someone may be able to repair the plane, however the propeller is badly bent. It may require an engine overhaul to become airworthy again. No one was near the plane when it flipped during the storms and there were no injuries.